THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The State Assembly on Monday unanimously adopted a substantive motion moved by Food and Civil Supplies Minister T M Jacob asking the Union Finance Minister not to accept a task force recommendation that limits the yearly supply of subsidised cooking gas cylinders to just four per family. The substantive motion, under Rule 275 of Assembly proceedings, was taken up on the basis of a motion moved by CPM member Elamaram Kareem on the issue under Rule 130. Speakers cutting across political lines were generally in agreement with the motion moved by Elamaram Kareem. The Food and Civil Supplies Minister said that nearly 90 per cent households in the state used cooking gas and therefore the move to limit the number of cylinders would affect the state the most. According to the Minister, an average household would require at least 12 cooking gas cylinders a year.
Former Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac said fixing the number of cooking gas cylinders per family was the first step towards completely doing away with subsidies and dismantling the massive public distribution system. He described the task force report on direct transfer of subsidies as a ''conspiracy' hatched against the poor of the country. He said the Centre works in an insidious manner. First, they will cap the subsidy. Then, they will transfer the subsidy amount to the beneficiary using the Aadhar number. Finally, they will introduce targeting, limiting subsidies to just BPL beneficiaries. ''If the Centre plans to use the Unique Identification Authority to wean out subsidies, there is no question of cooperating with Authority,'' Isaac warned.
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