New Delhi, July 26: The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply today that Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has launched various consumer empowering initiatives, the details of which are given below:
(i) Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY)
Government has approved Rs. 8000 crore under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) for release of 5 crore deposit free new LPG connections to Women of BPL families over three years, i.e. FY 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19. The scheme will provide an initial cost of Rs. 1600/- for providing LPG connection to poor households in the name of woman of the household. The Prime Minister has launched the scheme on 01.05.2016 at Balia.
(ii) MyLPG.in
It provides online information of sales and distribution of LPG cylinder delivery data to LPG Consumers on a near real time basis. Various features such as LPG usage, LPG booking status, LPG refill history, request for surrender of connection, subsidy availed and transferred, rating of distributors by cylinder delivery time, rating the distributor on the five perceived parameters and Aadhaar Linking Status have been provided for use of consumers.
(iii) Rating of Distributors Based on Delivery Performance.
Each distributor is now being rated from 5 stars to 1 star (***** to *) based on his delivery performance. The aim is to measure, increase and improve the delivery performance of each distributor. Rating of distributor helps a consumer in deciding the change of distributor. It also motivates distributors to improve delivery times so as to retain consumers and acts as a monitoring mechanism for OMC sales officers to make efforts to improve the performance of low rating distributors.
(iv) SMS/IVRS
The SMS/IVR System is a customer oriented initiative, launched to facilitate a genuine customer for making a refill booking round the clock, seven days a week (24 X 7), and also circumvents the problems sometimes earlier faced by customers of finding Distributor’s telephone lines busy (especially during rush hours, with many customers trying to contact the distributor at the same time). In this system, a Consumer can book gas not only from his/her personal registered telephone/mobile numbers, but also from an un-registered telephone number. However, LPG consumers, who do not have a landline/mobile number, can, continue to visit the distributorship for booking their refills.
(v) E-SV (Sahaj)
OMCs launched a facility by the name ‘e-SV’ on pilot basis in May 2015. ‘e-SV’ is the electronic subscription voucher emailed to the customer upon release of LPG connection online. Subscription Voucher indicates the number of cylinders and pressure regulators loaned to the customer against the security deposit. The facility enables the customers to register, make payment online for availing LPG connection at his/her doorstep without visiting the LPG distributorship. The Sahaj initiative was formally launched by the Minister of State (I/C), PNG in 12 cities on 30.08.15. Online new LPG connection is released after intercompany de-duplication in all districts where NIC has extended the facility. For the remaining districts, connections will be released as per the existing process of Intra Company de-duplication till NIC extends similar facility to the remaining districts.
(vi) Emergency Helpline No. `1906’
This LPG Emergency multilingual Helpline was dedicated to the nation on 1.1.2016 by the Hon’ble Minister of PNG. This facility is available 24*7 operations with 2 shifts 12 hours each for attending emergency LPG leakage complaints. The call center is having a web based application for logging and viewing/monitoring the call logs & updation of the contact details of the mechanic & field officers.
(vii) Online Payment
As part of Digital India Initiatives, OMCs have launched the facility for Online New connections (SAHAJ), in which customer is also having an option for making the online payments through Net banking & credit/debit card for release of new LPG connections. By this facility customer can now book & pay online for the refills booked by Net-banking/debit/credit cards.
(viii) Online Portal to Piped Natural Gas (PNG) customers
Major City Gas Distribution Companies such as Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL), Mahanagar Gas Limited (MGL) etc. have made an interactive online portal to PNG customers for making online bill payments, new customer registration and suitable grievance redressal mechanism. In addition, all CGD entities provide the price break-up of CNG/PNG, to its customers.
