Almost every month, domestic consumers of LPG cooking gas have been experiencing a drastic increase of Rs 25 for a 14.2 kg cylinder, which has put a heavy burden on the common man.
As a result, the price of LPG today is almost Rs 200 more than what it was 7-8 months back and more than double in the last 7 years. To add to the misery, the earlier subsidy of 12 cylinders for each household has been done away by the Central govt, bringing the domestic price of the gas on par with the market price.
Not long back, the Central government had requested consumers to give up their subsidies to enable the poor families in the rural areas to avail of the LPG facilities.
Free LPG connections were also given to lakhs of families in the rural areas by the Modi government, as part of their welfare schemes. Today, in the present scenario of unaffordable LPG prices, the only alternative for these hapless families is to revert to the traditional ways of cooking, using firewood and charcoal.
Their hopes of the promised utopian ‘acche din’ have been shattered badly, as much as it is with the rest of the country.
