In a significant move which could give relief to a large number of consumers in the state, the Punjab government on Monday cleared a comprehensive policy to provide gas through pipeline for every kind of usage to the urban population of the state.
In a Press statement issued on Monday, Local Government minister, Navjot Singh Sidhu divulged that the department is framing progressive policies to provide every amenity to the urban sector. He further elaborated that the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) has accorded permission for supplying gas through pipeline. “Also that the powers to supply the same to the urban consumers rest with the concerned MC or Nagar Panchayat,” he said.
The minister said, after the PNGRB will give permission, the concerned companies would pay rent on per year basis to the urban local bodies under newly framed policy thus resulting in the economic self-dependence of the urban bodies.
Sidhu further said that in the first phase Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Bathinda, Mohali, Fatehgarh Sahib and Rupnagar have seen the permission being granted by the PNGRB to the companies for supplying gas through pipeline and the work has started in these areas. In the second phase, the PNGRB has selected Patiala, Moga, Sangrur, Barnala, Kapurthala and ShaheedBhagat Singh Nagar to give sanction to the companies to begin the initiative in these areas where it would take off soon. He also said that the department would cover all 167 cities and towns of the state.
The minister further disclosed that in the earlier proposed policy, the companies would have paid entire rent at one go which would have proved a colossal amount. The Punjab and Haryana High Court and PNGRB suggested fixing reasonable rates and it is in this context that the department has now decided to extract rent on per year basis instead of onetime payment, he said.
The minister also added that every consumer of urban population whether belonging to the domestic, transportation, business and industrial category would get the gas.