The State-run oil marketing companies (OMCs) on Tuesday increased the price of domestic cooking gas by ₹25.5 a cylinder.
In Chennai, a domestic cylinder containing 14.2 kg of gas is priced at ₹875.5 and the smaller 5 kg cylinder at ₹322.5. The last revision was on July 1 when it was ₹850.5 per cylinder. Usually, OMCs revise prices on the first of every month.
Such constant increases badly hit poor consumers, said Elijah Mathew, who runs an NGO for residents of a slum in Perungudi. “These are people who have lost their jobs and do not have any income. They are somehow surviving with rice from fair price shops. It is really unfair to burden them with the hikes. Many got connections under the Ujjwala Scheme since they were not able to get gas connections. Now, they cannot buy cylinders and are going back to picking up firewood to cook,” he said.
Kausalya of Kannagi Nagar said she had bought a wood-fired clay stove and had been using it since gas prices were going up constantly. “I collect sticks for the fire. It does not cost me anything and I can prolong the booking of my gas cylinder. My family depends only on my salary, which is meagre. It would be nice if the subsidy amount was increased, at least for families like ours,” she said.
S.A. Ponnusamy, Tamil Nadu Milk Dealers’ Employees Welfare Association, said the subsidy amount should go up correspondingly along with the increase in gas prices. It had come down from ₹563 a cylinder to a mere ₹25. The government should roll back the increase and make cylinders more affordable for the poor and middle class, he said.
