MillenniumPost
Bengal

Centre to provide LPG connection to BPL women

The Centre has a target to provide LPG connection to 30 lakh people in West Bengal in one year.
Petroleum and natural gas minister Dharmendra Pradhan will launch PMUY in the state on August 14 targeting 1.06 crore BPL households. In West Bengal, LPG penetration is lower than national average at 52 per cent.

The services will be available for the women members of the family belonging to the BPL category. The project will be covered under Pradhan Mantri Ujjawala Yojana (PMUY).

RK Mahapatra, General Manager of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) at a programme at the office of 
the IOC said that the new project will be launched on August 14 and Ujjawala Mela will be conducted at the Nazrul Mancha from August 15-17 in which IOC, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum will join hands.

Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana was the recently introduced scheme by the Centre by which, free LPG connections will be provided to women belonging to BPL (Below-Poverty-Line) households.

It has been estimated that nearly 5 crore families will benefit from this. This scheme was sanctioned 
by the Union Cabinet on March 10 this year. 

According to available data, approximately Rs 8,000 crore has been reserved for the scheme.

According to the scheme, each beneficiary will receive monetary support of Rs 1,600 to get a cooking gas connection.

There are now 10 refilling stations across the state and around 990 trillion metric ton (TMT) gas is 
consumed in the state but in the next three years the upward limit of the consumption would be increased by 500 TMT in the state for which the Centre has to bear an additional cost of Rs 540 crore.

The centre has a target to provide a new connection to around 30 lakh people in West Bengal this year. For getting a new connection the customers have to have an Aadhaar card or bank account. It 
would not be a problem at all as 92 per cent of the state’s population have got Aadhaar card.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has chosen Ballia, a district in Uttar Pradesh, to launch this scheme as the district’s average gas penetration is one among the lowest in the country.

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