Govt not allocating natural gas for transport

new delhi: centre for science and environment (cse) alleged that petroleum ministry was not allocating natural gas to meet transport demand of delhi citing supply constraints while it was increasing allocation to industrial groups. transport demand is only 1.13 million cubic meters per day out of the total 33.4 million cubic meters per day gas available in the hbj pipeline, cse said in a statement here.since july 1998, the ministry of petroleum and natural gas has increased gas allocation to essar oil ltd, mumbai by 0.7 million cubic meter per day (mcmpd), 0.85 mcmpd to indian petrochemical corporation ltd (ipcl), dahej, 2.1 mcmpd to national thermal power corporation (ntpc), kawas and 0.4 mcmpd to gujarat industrial power company ltd, cse said. "there is a note from minister of state for petroleum to gas authority of india ltd (gail) in 2000 asking it to work for city gas distribution in lucknow (prime minister's constituency) and bareilly (union minister of state for petroleum's constituency)," the statement claimed. on the basis of this the petroleum ministry has approved a total allocation of 0.15 mcmpd. ignoring these precedents, the petroleum ministry is pressing the panic button that production and supply of natural gas in the country was drying up and therefore allocation of more cng was not possible, cse said. "if (petroleum minister) ram naik still insists on claiming that gas is drying up then how is the ministry expanding the infrastructure for gas supply. hbj pipeline capacity is being doubled," cse said demanding that naik stop misguiding the supreme court and harassment of public