People wait in a queue for kerosene. A file picture

May 5: Kerosene will soon cease to be a deficit commodity in Nagaon households, with the district administration promising to hike distribution from 4 litres per family to 5.75 litres per ration card holder.

Nagaon additional deputy commissioner M. Sundaram said according to the proposed strategy, 5.75 litres of kerosene will be distributed against every ration card every month.

Till now, every household in rural areas gets 4 litre while it is 5 litre for an urban household.

The shortfall has been triggered by the huge gap between the demand and supply of kerosene in the district.

Of the 13.42 metric tonne of kerosene required every month, the district receives only 12.08 metric tonne — a shortfall of over 1.3 metric tonne.

The administration is also planning to launch an awareness drive in the district to explain the concept of “faithful distribution system” to the masses so that they are not deprived of their shares. Nagaon was the first district in the state to launch hawkers’ points to distribute kerosene in public places to the card holders. Right now, only two such points in the district headquarters is functioning. “We have plan to expand the concept of hawking points throughout the district even though distribution through retailers will continue,” said deputy commissioner J. Balaji.

The administration is also planning to direct the LPG distributors to deliver the cylinders to the consumers’ doorsteps and take stern action against those found guilty of selling cylinders in the grey market.

A recent investigation found that there are only 200 commercial LPG users in the Nagaon Sadar subdivision, proving that the big business firms and hotels were utilising household LPGs for commercial purposes. The administration warned of stern action against those who would be found violating the government guidelines even after the awareness programme.

Blaming Oil India Ltd for the LPG crisis in the state, Sundaram said the shor tage has been fuelled by the company’s limited supply of cooking gas in the district.

“We are planning to move OIL to increase the supply of cooking gas to overcome the LPG crisis,” he said.