Congress-ruled states vs India: LPG cap hiked from 6 to 9

New Delhi, Jan 17: Approving Petroleum Minister

's proposal, UPA cabinet on Thursday, Jan 17 raised the cap on supply of subsidised

cylinders from six to nine per year.

All households will get nine subsidised cylinders from Apr 2013, said Veerappa Moily. According to sources, the cabinet had sought Election Commission's view on the same as Meghalaya, Tripura and Nagaland will hold assembly elections in Feb.

The cabinet did not want to violate any model code of conduct ahead of the elections. However, the Election Commission is reported to have said that the decision of increasing cap on supply of subsidised cylinders was not a violation of code as it was an ongoing scheme.

Earlier, it was announced that households of all Congress-ruled states in the country will receive the supplies of nine subsidised LPG cylinders.

While the opposition predictably had dubbed the above move as an "anti-people" one, even some constituents of the ruling coalition demanded a rethink. In fact, one of the main reasons why the Trinamool Congress walked out of the UPA was the arbitrary cap on the number of LPG cylinders.

Manmohan Singh-led government earlier had made it clear that a consumer shall only be given six subsidised cylinders each year and any requirement above this will have to be brought at market rate.

OneIndia News