Schemes for Welfare of SCs/STs/OBCs and OMCs

Schemes for Welfare of SCs/STs/OBCs and OMCs

                        The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply today that Oil companies take up schemes and programmes for the welfare of people residing in neighbourhood of projects includes SC, ST, OBC & Minorities communities out of their CSR funds.  The thrust areas under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) are on issues like child care and education, scholarship scheme for SC/ST, health care, drinking water, skill  development, infrastructure development, swachh vidyalaya abhiyan, construction of school toilets, vocational training, community development, women empowerment, promotion of arts, sports, literature and culture etc. These schemes/projects also address the welfare/development of deprived, under privileged, neglected and weaker section of the society.


In ONGC, with regard to fund under the Component Plan for SC/ST, a case No.5/6/12 was registered by CBI in the year 2012 under IPC & PC Act against some employees of ONGC for abusing their official position and misappropriating funds allocated for welfare of SC/ST communities.  After investigation, CBI recommended initiation of major penalty proceeding against one employee and minor penalty proceedings against three employees of ONGC. ONGC suspended the employee and has given prosecution sanction for court proceeding against him.  In addition major penalty disciplinary proceeding has also been initiated against the concerned employee.

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Production Cost of Petroleum Products

            The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply today that refining of crude oil is a process industry, where crude oil constitutes around 90% of the total cost. Crude oil is processed through several processing units. Each of these units produces intermediate products streams, which require further reprocessing and blending.  As it is difficult to apportion the total cost amongst individual refined products, product-wise costs are not identified separately.

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Give UP Campaign of LPG Subsidy

            The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply today that Government has launched an initiative to encourage domestic LPG consumers, who can afford to pay the market price for LPG, to voluntarily surrender their LPG subsidy. This will enable the Government to utilize the limited resources to reach out to the economically backward classes.  State/UT-wise details of consumers who have surrendered/renounced their subsidy is at Annexure-I



Every LPG consumer, who surrenders LPG subsidy, is linked to a BPL household who gets LPG connection in turn.



As on 28.07.2015, total 13,86,885 consumers have voluntarily given up/surrendered subsidy on LPG.  Assuming that each of these customer consumes an average of 8 cylinders per annum and at the average subsidy rate of    Rs. 200/- per cylinder, the saving amounts to  Rs. 2,21,90,16,000/- approx.



            State/UT-wise details of new domestic LPG  connections released in the country including rural areas during 2014-15 and from April – June 2015 is at Annexure-II



 Government has appealed to all the LPG consumers,  who can afford to pay the market price for LPG, to voluntarily surrender their LPG subsidy.  The following measures have been taken by OMCs to motivate the well off/rich and affluent people to give subsidy voluntarily :-



 (i) Publicity campaigns through various media like Print, TV, Radio, Posters, Banners, Hoardings etc.



(ii) Publicity through camps/road shows/rallies/door to door campaign at district level.



(iii) Campaigns at selected Retail Outlets to facilitate the customer for voluntary surrendering their LPG subsidy.



(iv)  Convenient modes viz. IVRS, SMS, Web and Manual form made available for posting “Give It Up” request.



(v) Appreciation letters to  LPG customers giving up their LPG subsidy and  display of their name in scroll of Honour in www.mylpg.in,  if desired.



(vi) SMS to above customers informing them the name of the BPL beneficiary issued LPG connection against LPG subsidy given up by them.



(vii) Display of the list showing the name of giving up customer and the linked BPL beneficiary in www.mylpg.in.

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Using Of Solar Energy



                        The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply today that Government has advised Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) to provide Solar Power System at Retail Outlets. There is no plan for using solar energy for lighting LPG Distributorships.

OMCs have also been advised to adopt the policy of providing loan to Retail Outlet Dealers for setting up of Solar Power System at Retail Outlets. Number of ROs solarized as on 31.03.2015 and the targets for financial years 2015-16 and 2016-17 for providing Solar Power Systems at Retails Outlets by OMCs are as under :



OMCs No. of ROs solarized Targets 2015-16 2016-17
IOCL             2663 1500           2000
BPCL 235   350 700
HPCL 227 300 700
Industry 3125 2150 3400
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Survey by ONGC

The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply today that Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) has conducted seismic survey in offshore areas adjoining Maharashtra and Gujarat during the last field season from November, 2014 to May, 2015. During the survey ONGC has acquired 11388 Sq. Km. of 3D seismic data in the Western Periphery of Mumbai High.

ONGC allows fishing activities in the adjoining areas barring the small area of survey for 15-20 days so that neither fishing activities nor ONGC’s seismic survey work gets substantially affected. The fishermen reoccupy the concerned area once the survey work is completed.

The delegations from fishing communities/ associations/ societies have demanded compensation for stopping fishing activities in Mumbai offshore areas.

ONGC has taken the following steps to mitigate the hardships of the fishing communities on the above count:

(i) To minimize the impact of seismic surveys the survey block is divided into small sub-sectors of 15-20 days of survey work and advance intimation of schedule of survey work in each sub-sector is given to fishermen 15 days in advance through distribution of leaflets and letters.

(ii) Fishermen are also advised to fish in the adjoining areas for such a short time and then come back to the original area once the survey job is completed in that small portion.

(iii) ONGC through its contractor has been compensating fisherman for their loss of fishing equipment, nets and other tools, if any, which are either lost or damaged during survey work.
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CAIRN-ONGC Gas Pipeline

The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply today that Cairn India Limited (CAIRN) along with Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) and Government of India are parties to a Production Sharing Contract (PSC) with respect to the exploration block RJ-ON-90/1 (RJ Block) located in the State of Rajasthan. Cairn on behalf of the Joint Venture has submitted a proposal to the Petroleum & Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) for establishing tie-in connectivity from RDG Terminal at Gudamalani, Barmer, in the State of Rajasthan to the GSPL’s Palanpur Terminal in Gujarat under the provisions for tie-in connectivity as per the PNGRB Regulations. Board will decide the matter as per provisions of the Act/Regulations.

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Anomalies in Petrol Pump Allocations

The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply today that Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have informed that all Retail Outlets (ROs) under Discretionary quota/Special category like Operation Vijay Kargil, Mumbai Martyrs, etc., to the injured solders, widows/dependents of martyr solders have been handed over/commissioned by them except for 2 cases under Operation Vijay Scheme reported by Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. State/UT-wise details of Retail Outlet locations advertised by OMCs under Defence Category which have been allotted but pending for commissioning are at Annexure-I. Allotment/setting up of Retail Outlet dealerships involves various steps like advertisement, interviews/selection of dealers, field verification of credentials, issue of LOI, procurement of land, obtaining necessary Statutory approvals, construction etc. Hence, the materialisation of allotment/commissioning of the retail outlet after advertisements is fulfilled over a period of time.

Government has directed OMCs to comply with certain amended provisions in Dealer/ Distributor Selection Guidelines and OMCs are in the process of reviewing the guidelines to include the proposed amendments. OMCs have reported that they have not suspended commissioning of new Regular LPG Distributorships/ RGGLVs where LOI has been issued

Expansion of RO sales network by OMCs is a continuous process to ensure adequate availability of motoring fuels like petrol and diesel throughout the country. Retail outlets are set up by OMCs at identified locations based on field survey and feasibility studies.

Accordingly, OMCs set up low cost rural retail outlets (like KSKs, Humara Pump, Gramin Pump, etc.) for catering to Rural/Agriculture markets throughout the country at identified locations having sufficient potential and found to be economically viable.

Locations for setting up LPG distributorships are identified based on refill sale potential that will economically sustain the distributorship. In case the location is found as feasible, it is included in the Industry Marketing Plan (Rajiv Gandhi Gramin LPG Vitaran Yojana (RGGLVY) or Regular LPG distributorship) and advertised subsequently.

As per the Vision 2015 for the Oil Industry on “Consumer Satisfaction and Beyond” approved by the Ministry in 2009 and further discussions on Perspective Plan, National LPG coverage has to be increased to 75%, with the district and State LPG coverage of minimum 50% & 60% respectively and at least one distributor in each block. To achieve this target, OMCs are continuously appointing new LPG distributors and more than 97% of blocks are covered by at least one LPG distributorship.