There was no unanimity in the Parliamentary Standing Committee on capping the number of domestic LPG cylinders, as declared by the Oil Ministry’s advertisement published in leading newspapers, according to Rajya Sabha MP, Tapan Sen, a member of the committee.
In a letter to Oil Minister, Jaipal Reddy, on Monday, the CPI (M) MP drew the Minister’s attention to “misrepresentation of facts” with regard to capping of LPG cylinders in the advertisement titled ‘Was the increase in prices of diesel & capping of domestic LPG avoidable? No, for the following reasons:’
The letter says the recommendation of the Standing Committee on Petroleum & Natural Gas (Eighth Report on Demands for Grants-2011-12) on this particular issue was not at all unanimous, as claimed in the Ministry’s advertised statement.
“I, as a member of the Standing Committee, had submitted my ‘note of dissent’ on the recommendation on this particular issue which was published along with the report and tabled in Parliament on 03-08-2011.”
Also, the decision of the Government to cap domestic LPG cylinders’ availability to six annually is at “wide variance with what the Standing Committee actually recommended on that issue”, Sen said.
“The Standing Committee recommended, though not unanimously, the restriction on domestic LPG availability at subsidised rate for “people having an income of more than Rs 6 lakh per annum including those holding constitutional posts, public representatives like MPs, MLAs/MLCs,” he added.