'Poverty, black marketing or illegal migrants', BJP questions Bengal's high consumption of kerosene

Kolkata (The Uttam Hindu): Amit Malviya, BJP’s in-charge of the National Information & Technology Department and Co-in-charge for the West Bengal unit, on Friday, questioned the exorbitantly high percentage of kerosene consumption in the state in comparison to the national statistics. According to recent statistics provided by the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas in Parliament based on specific questions raised by BJP’s Rajya Sabha member from West Bengal Samik Bhattacharya, the state alone consumes 66.38 per cent of the national consumption of kerosene. Bihar comes in the distant second position at 6.02 per cent.

Malviya, on Friday, made a significant post on his official X handle in the morning raising questions on this high consumption percentage of kerosene in West Bengal. According to Malviya, the fact that despite saturated coverage of LPG West Bengal consumes nearly 67 per cent of the national kerosene makes it clear that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is going to leave the state in ruins. “What could be the reason? Poverty, black marketing or large numbers of illegal migrants, doubling up as vote banks for the ruling TMC?” Malviya questioned.

He had also claimed that if there was a Hall of Shame for the chief ministers, Mamata Banerjee would figure right on top of the list.

Recently, another set of questions raised by Bhattacharya in the Rajya Sabha prompted answers from the Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs highlighting the flight of corporate entities from West Bengal. As per the statistics, a total of 2,227 companies have shifted their base from West Bengal to other states during the last five years from 2019 to 2024. Out of the 2,227 companies, 39 are enlisted with the Mumbai Stock Exchange. As per the reply of the Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs, under Section 13(4) of the Companies Act, 2013 a corporate entity has the freedom to shift its registration from one office to another and there are several reasons for that shifting, including flexibility in operations, smooth management, cost of company administration and better infrastructure facilities, among others.

In the reply, the Union Minister of State, Suresh Gopi, said, "Government of India makes allocation of 'Public Distribution System (PDS) Kerosene' to States/UTs including West Bengal on a quarterly basis for cooking and lighting purpose. ...During the year 2023-24, the State of West Bengal was allocated 7,04,016 KL of PDS SKO which is 66.38% of the total allocation of 10,60,524 KL. made to States/UTs across the country. The Government of India has issued the Kerosene (Restriction on Use and Fixation of Ceiling Price) Order 1993, as amended from time to time, inter alia, restricting the sale of Kerosene under Public Distribution System for cooking and illumination purposes only to eligible consumers at a price fixed by the Government or Government Oil Companies. The distribution of PDS Kerosene within the States/UTs under PDS network is carried out by the concerned States/UTs including the state of West Bengal. Scale, criteria, modalities etc. of distribution to end customers are also determined by the respective State/UT. It is the responsibility of the concerned State/UT Government to ensure that the allocated quantity is distributed to the intended beneficiary only."

"The Government of West Bengal has informed that the SKO (Superior Kerosene Oil) allocated by the Government of India to the State is being distributed through SKO shops under Public Distribution System (PDS). The Government of Bengal has further informed that only ration card holders are entitled to receive SKO and distribution of SKO is monitored and supervised by the District Controllers of Food and Supplies Department and surprise inspections are also done by field level officers of District Controller, Food and Supplies Department and District authorities besides regular inspections and raids by enforcement branch of the State to curb the misuse of SKO," the reply further added