Kolkata: With queues growing longer and tempers beginning to fray at LPG dealerships, cooking gas distributors on Thursday sought police assistance to prevent any untoward incident as the Aug 16 deadline for completing e-KYC for domestic LPG connections draws closer.The rush has intensified over the past few days, with large numbers of consumers turning up at distribution points after facing difficulties completing the process online. “Elderly consumers, in particular, are struggling with the digital procedure and are being forced to visit dealerships for assistance,” said LPG dealers’ spokesperson Bijon Bihari Biswas.The situation has left dealers worried about crowd management, especially in densely populated areas where hundreds of consumers may depend on a single distributor.However, when dealers approached police seeking assistance, they were asked to produce the official circular specifying Aug 16 as the deadline for completing e-KYC. That has created another problem. “We have not been issued any circular so far. We will seek one from the oil marketing companies (OMCs). So far, instruction came in the form of messages,” dealers said.According to distributors, OMCs have been pushing consumers to complete e-KYC, including through digital platforms that are intended to allow the process to be completed from home. In practice, however, a section of consumers has been unable to use the online facility.Dealers said one of the most frequent complaints is that consumers are unable even to log into the app. Others face problems completing authentication, leaving them with little choice but to visit their LPG distributor.“There are a lot of elderly people in the queue who can’t handle the online system. They have no other option but to come to the dealers’ point,” a dealer said. The digital bottleneck has consequently shifted much of the burden back to dealerships — precisely what the online e-KYC option was expected to avoid.Dealers said the pressure is particularly acute because consumers fear that failure to complete e-KYC by the deadline could affect their LPG connection or subsidy. With Aug 16 just days away, that anxiety is translating into a last-minute rush.Distributors have now sought greater clarity from the OMCs, including a formal communication on the deadline that can also be shared with local police while seeking crowd-control assistance. They also want the online system to function more smoothly so that consumers who are comfortable with smartphones do not have to visit dealerships unnecessarily.For elderly consumers and those unfamiliar with digital authentication, however, dealers said an accessible offline mechanism remains essential.
