Khandu, Rijju jointly launches Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana for Arunachal
Itanagar
Chief Minister Pema Khandu along with Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju and state’s Minister for Food and Civil Supplies Kamlung Mossang today launched the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) for Arunachal Pradesh in a function at State Banquet Hall here today.
As a symbolic launch of PMUY in the state, 24 beneficiaries were handed over LPG connections on the occasion. Till date, within a span of one year of PMUY’s launch, more than 2.2 crore connections have been released throughout the country.
Expressing gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for launching the people-oriented scheme, Khandu said the scheme would benefit Arunachal Pradesh immensely as more than half of the population, especially in the rural areas, still use firewood for cooking purposes and hence indirectly impacts the state’s rich forest cover.
On June 2nd Union MoS (Independent Charge) for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan, in a meeting with Khandu and Rijiju at New Delhi, had assured that each and every household in Arunachal Pradesh would be connected by LPG by 2019. He had requested the Chief Minister and MoS Home to launch the scheme in the state immediately and implement it at all district and block levels on mission mode.
Under PMUY women belonging to Below Poverty Line (BPL) families would be provided clean cooking fuel. The scheme aims to provide LPG connections to 5 crore BPL households by 2019 across the country and offers assistance of Rs 1600 for one connection.
Hailing the scheme as one of the best, Khandu announced that the state government would add (dovetail) to the assistance provided under the scheme and offer additional Rs 1000 to each beneficiary. With this announcement, a beneficiary of the state would avail a total of Rs 2600 as assistance for one connection that includes security deposit, pressure regulator, safety hose, consumer card and installation charges.
“In these three years, Modiji has taken several big decisions and launched more than 90 schemes catering to every section of the society. It is now our responsibility to take these schemes to the genuine beneficiaries in a transparent and judicious manner,” Khandu said while reiterating his call for change of mind-set and work culture.
He informed that the state government has also come up with several welfare schemes and programs as announced in the budget 2016-17 and these will be launched very soon.
The Chief Minister congratulated members of the Oil Industry under the aegis of Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas for implementing the noble endeavour of central government throughout the country.
Informing that highest cases of lung cancer is reported from the North East, Rijiju blamed it on use of firewood for cooking in almost all households of the region. He said PMUY will now change this scenario and in the process provide a clean environment and preserve forests.
Rijiju observed that Arunachal Pradesh under the leadership of Khandu is doing its best in implementing central government flagship programs and called for accountability by each – ministers, politicians, bureaucrats, technocrats and contractors alike.
As per oil industry records, Arunachal Pradesh, as on May 1st, 2017, has around 3.04 lakh households with an LPG coverage of 64%. In order to achieve 100% penetration in days to come, the Oil Marketing Companies will be organizing ‘Melas’ and ‘Camps’ at various locations for releasing LPG connections to BPL families. Besides, seven new LPG distributors are in pipeline to meet the surge in LPG demand in the state.
