An important message of Gas consumers ! – we are required to go to
our Distributor and have our fingerprints recorded as part of ‘re-KYC’.
Half a century ago, there were less than a handful of houses which had a gas connection – cooking was done in kerosene stoves and kerosene was the most sought after commodity. Housewives were afraid of pressure cookers too.. .. .. there were lot of jokes of wives forgetting the close the gas stoves, coming to see movies and calling back their nearby homes (no mobiles those days and owning a telephone was aristocratic) to check whether they have switched the stove off – remember that there would be slides in Cinema theatres urging the people to ensure that they switch off the gas stoves immediately once the cooking is over…..
Not many of today’s youngsters would know the ordeals that the earlier generation had in making the good ready. Even in cities there were only stoves (kerosene stoves). In villages, it was mostly by wood fired ovens. Imagine the plight of those who had to stand near the hot oven for preparation of food. Worst was the plight in lighting a stove again and again – there existed pump stoves and wick stoves.
The gas stove uses LPG – liquefied petroleum gas, which is mostly a mixture of propane and butane. Propane is a three-carbon alkane, normally a gas, but compressible to a transportable liquid. It may also contain small amounts of propylene and/or butylene. An odorant such as ethanethiol or thiophene is added so that people can easily smell the gas in case of a leak.
Brand Indane was conceived in 1964; the first Indane LPG connection was released on 22.10. 1965 in Kolkata. Our house got gas cylinder in 1975 ! The red cylinder containing LPG is a prized possession for households and there was always concern as to how many days the connection would last and whether refill would be readily available. Now a days, most households have double cylinders and some have multiple connection too… still, people of worried of regular supply.
Now there is ease of booking [tele call / sms / portal / visit too !] – there is transparency and we are updated with billing and delivery. My dealer was Swathi Gas Agencies and later TUCS; I thought the office is in the main building of TUCS opp to Hindu Senior Sec School, only today I realized that a couple of years back they had moved further down in same Big Street at Ghana Bagh street intersection !!
The 5 kg and 14.2 kg cylinders are largely meant for domestic use and comprise almost 90% of all gas distributed,, while the 19 kg, 47.5 kg and 425 kg Jumbo cylinders are marketed for industrial and commercial consumption. In case you do not know – the price of 14.2 Kg LPG cylinder in Chennai is ₹818.50. No change recorded in the LPG price compared to last month. The LPG price has remained unchanged at ₹818.50 since March 2024.
Understand that in a move to streamline the distribution of LPG
subsidies and prevent unauthorized access to subsidized cylinders, the Ministry
of Petroleum and Natural Gas has made biometric authentication mandatory for
all LPG cylinder customers. This means that all LPG cylinder customers will
need to provide their biometric data, such as fingerprints or iris scans, to
their LPG distributor in order to receive subsidized LPG cylinders. This exercise is now on and today it took
less than 2 min for me to comply with this – appreciate the attitude and speed
of officials of TUCS Triplicane Gas Agency.
To
provide your biometric data, you will need to visit your LPG distributor’s
office or wait for your LPG distributor to visit your home. You will need to
bring your LPG connection’s consumer number and Aadhar if your no. is not already linked. The biometric update process is quick and
easy. You are asked to provide your fingerprints or iris scans. The data gets
stored securely and will only be used for the purpose of verifying your
identity.
With regards – S Sampathkumar
8.6.2024
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