BJP blames Cong for creating artificial scarcity of cooking gas

New Delhi, Feb 7 (UNI) Holding the Congress squarely responsible for creating 'artificial scarcity' in cooking gas in the country, the BJP today said it would make this an issue if the Centre failed to take corrective steps in one month's time.

BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar said the Government was giving 'lame excuses' like winter as the reason behind the shortage as if the country was seeing the winter for the first time. The queues are running upto miles in southern states and Andaman and Nicobar where winters are as warm as summer seasons, he remarked.

He said the shortage was basically because of the Government's instructions to the Oil Companies to reduce the LPG production to bring down their losses and that the Government was not willing to bear the subsidies for the 'aam admi', on whose support they had come to power.

While the cooking gas was being supplied on demand during the NDA regime, the UPA Government had deliberately changed the booking rules for the refills providing for a lapse of 21 days after the first cylinder. They wanted to create artificial scarcity to allow the suppliers to milk the consumers, he alleged.

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