The Hindu : Front Page : Wait for second LPG cylinder gets shorter

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Sunday, Jun 07, 2009
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Wait for second LPG cylinder gets shorter

N. Ravi Kumar

CHENNAI: The suspension of the State government’s free LPG scheme during the general election came in handy for Indian Oil Corporation to clear a part of the waiting list for double-bottle connections involving a second cylinder.

In the little over two months when the Model Code of Conduct remained in force from early March, the oil company issued second cylinders to households that had registered for it in 2006 and 2007.

Post-election, the company has gone ahead and decided to clear the waiting list for 2008 as well. “An advice asking us to start issuing second cylinders to those who had registered last year was received recently,” an Indane distributor said.

Informed sources in the company said suspension of the free LPG scheme resulted in availability of additional cylinders with IOC. On an average, the 120-odd Indane distributors catering to households in Chennai and its suburbs released around 400 DBCs against registrations made in 2006 and 2007. A few distributors released as many as 1,000 DBCs.

Compared to the number of letters posted to customers by distributors, the conversion rate has been low. A senior IOC official said many of those who had registered for DBCs would have moved to another address, even in another city. The conversion rate is not expected to be significantly higher for the recent batch of releases as in 2008.

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