Uniformity in selection of petrol pump, LPG outlets: Govt

New Delhi, Dec 19 (UNI) The government today said it had introduced a certain degree of uniformity in the selection of LPG and petrol pump retail outlets by providing 50 per cent reservation for diferent sections of society, including women, freedom fighters and defence personnel.

Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dinsha Patel informed the Rajya Sabha that as per the guidelines providing 50 per cent reservation, SCs/STs would account for 25 per cent, Defence Category (DC) and para-military/police/government personnel (PMP) eight per cent each, Physically Handicapped people five per cent and freedom fighters and outstanding sportspersons (OSP) two per cent each.

However, in view of the fact that the majority population in Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Mizoram belong to the Scheduled Tribes, the reservation of dealerships for STs in these states has been made in line with the percentage of their population.

Further, 33 per cent of the dealership or distributorship in each of these categories has been reserved for women belonging to that category, the minister said.

He said the ministry had issued guidelines in October 2000 for selection of retail outlet dealers, LPG distributors and kerosene dealers through Dealer Selection Boards.

However, with the dismantling of Administered Price Mechanism (APM) since April 1, 2002, DSBs were dissolved on May 9 the same year, and public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) were given commercial freedom to formulate their own guidelines in the selection of location, retail outlet dealership, LPG distributorship and kerosene dealership.

He said in order to ensure transparency in selection of dealership among OMCs, broad guidelines were issued on August 19, 2003.

These guidelines, among other things, provide that the percentage of reservation for various sections of society will be in the prescribed ratio and the Corpus Fund would continue.

Further, there will be no ceiling on the income of prospective allottees and only one dealership will be allowed to a family unit.

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