CHENNAI: As the common man is queuing up before gas agencies and banks anxious to complete the procedure for Direct Benefit Transfer for LPG before December-end, the more tech-savvy ones, who went online to bypass dealing with the under-informed gas agency staff, have found that they are not better off.
From lack of official information regarding the successful completion of the process to confusion between consumer ID and LPG ID numbers, the online route is no better than those lengthy queues.
After the scheme was announced, Hariharan Shankar, a city resident, went online to rasf.uidai.gov.in to finish the Aadhar seeding procedure. As he registered his cellphone and e-mail ID, he even got the message that assured him ‘submitted successfully’. However, days after that, he hasn’t yet received any message regarding the completion of the seeding.
Others like Sabapathy Kanaga, who have begun to associate their gas connections with the 17-digit IDs, were surprised to find that the box on the portal did not have space for all those digits. “While keying in the number, which is supposed to have provision for 17 digits, I found it can accommodate only 15 digits,” he said.
Oil company officials said that as per procedure, submission of details by the consumer completes only one part.
Consumer ID Confusion
Subsequently, individual dealers will login to the portal which would be used to verify the details. Only after the registration, verification and seeding are complete will an official SMS be sent out to consumers informing them of the status. “Once the seeding is complete, they will receive an e-mail if they have registered it,” the official said. The confusion surrounding lack of sufficient space to fill in the ID number was because of misunderstanding between the consumer ID and the LPG ID, officials said. While the LPG ID is a 17-digit number, consumer ID is eight digits for Bharatgas and up to 15 digits for Indane. Many who took connection decades ago have their ID in four or five digits.