Imphal, June 29: FCS Minister Ph Parijat today said that the shortage of Liquidized Petroleum Gas (LPG) will soon become a thing of the past in Manipur once the Rs 27.16 crores Gas Bottling Plant being set up at Sekmai under the joint venture of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Project Development India Limited (PDIL) is commissioned.

Addressing a press conference at the conference hall of the Secretariat today, Parijat informed that 80 percent of the construction work has been completed and it is expected to be over and ready for commissioning by December next.

Expressing satisfaction over the progress of the work, Parijat said that he visited the site yesterday and everything was found going smoothly.

By September, all the remaining construction works are expected to be completed keeping with the target of commissioning the Gas Plant by December next.

Maintaining that based on the available data of LPG consumers, the total requirement of LPG in Manipur is 18,000 metric tonne in a year; FCS Minister pointed out the Gas Plant is keeping the target of producing 20,000 metric tonne of gas.

In that case, there would be surplus of LPG in Manipur and the problem of shortage of cooking gas faced by the people would become a thing of the past, he added.

He further informed that initially, the Gas Plant would be pressed into service for only two shifts of 8-hour duration in a day, but with the increase in the number of consumers, the number of shifts would be increased to three to ensure that the people of the State do not face any more difficulties, the Minister promised.

After commissioning of the Gas Plant, all the gas agencies would be able to fill the LPG cylinders from the plant itself, he added.

On implementation of Annapurna scheme in the State for the period 2002-03, the FCS Minister pledged that the distribution of 10 kgs of rice free of cost to the selected beneficiaries who do not enjoy Old Aged Pension would be carried out before July 5 ahead of downsizing of SPF Ministry.

Distribution of rice to the beneficiaries could have been done much earlier, but for existence of certain confusion with the Social Welfare Department over the matter, he clarified.

Disclosing that the total number of beneficiaries under the scheme during 2001-02 was 4831 only, the Minister that with an additional 3769 beneficiaries during the intervening period, the number has increased to 8590 during 2002-04.When reminded about his tall promise of causing a spate of Kerosene in Manipur during election time, FCS Minister admitted the he could not kept his promise as the quota of Kerosene allotted to the State had been cut down by the Centre.

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