Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana launched in Odisha

With the aim to replace firewood with gas for cooking, Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) was today launched in Odisha with the Centre announcing plans to give free LPG connections to 30 lakh BPL families in three years.
Launching the scheme here, Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram described PMUY as a revolutionary step, which is to be implemented in a transparent manner across the state.
Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on the occasion said the scheme was conceived by the Prime Minister as a step towards empowering women belonging to poor households. Budgetary allocation has been made to provide poor women relief from smoke, drudgery and disease.

Stating that the scheme will specially benefit women households in Eastern and North-Eastern states, he said Odisha, which has LPG penetration much below the national average, will be immensely benefited.
In India smoke from fire wood, coal, dung cakes etc adversely affect the health of women. As per a World Health Organisation Report, smoke inhaled by women is equivalent to 400 cigarettes per hour, Pradhan said.
The Union Minister announced that over the next three years, 40 lakh households in the state will benefit on account of new LPG connections and out of these, 30 lakh will be BPL families.

The implementation of the scheme will be undertaken by organising melas in villages and beneficiaries will be identified based on data prepared by Odisha government.

In all, 20 beneficiaries from six districts and one sub-division of Anugul (Athmalik) were handed over LPG connections under the scheme by the dignitaries. On the occasion, altogether 870 were provided with LPG connections.
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The Petroleum Minister also announced that three LPG
bottling plants will be set up at Khurda, Balanagir and Jeypore in Odisha, while the capacity of existing plants at Jharsuguda and Balasore would be augmented.
Stating that there are only 32 lakh active LPG consumers in the state now, Pradhan said, of them, 13 lakh consumers were provided with LPG connection in last two years.

"There are 565 LPG distributors in Odisha and we have already given permission to 180 new distributors. They will start functioning shortly. It has also been decided to have 250 more distributors in the state," he said.
Attacking the BJD Government in Odisha, Pradhan said some people have called him 'postman minister' but the critics must know that this postman has been able to check black marketing of LPG and cancel 3.34 crore ghost connections, which saved Rs 21,000 crore.
The Government is now directly transferring the subsidy of the LPG to the account of the beneficiary, he said.
Sambalpur MP Nagendra Pradhan and Bargarh MP Prabhas Singh did not attend the function though they had been invited, officials said.

On the absence of the BJD MPs, Pradhan said, he had invited the Lok Sabha members from Sambalpur and Bargarh but had not not written to any MLA to attend the state launch of PMUY, except Basanta Panda, who is the MLA of Nuapada besides state president of BJP.
Sambalpur MP Nagendra Pradhan said though MLA from Nuapara was invited, BJD MLAs of Sambalpur district, where the program was organised, were not invited to the function, making it more of a party event.