NEW DELHI: The central government’s aim is to make providing LPG in rural areas into a social movement, said petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan. He was speaking at the curtain raiser to the WLPGA 2017 Asia LPG Summit, being organised by World LPG Association in New Delhi on Monday.
He said improving access to clean cooking gas in rural areas would lead to less usage of ‘chullah’. Using chullah leads to inhaling of smoke, which is equivalent to smoking 40 cigarettes a day according to doctors, he noted.
“When I assumed office it was a ministry dealing with large corporates. We have turned this into a welfare ministry,” he said.
The government’s flagship social-sector programme, Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, targets to provide 50 million LPG connections over three years for the poor households. It has already surpassed the current year’s target of 15 million connections.
Pradhan added that the benefits of clean cooking fuel were hitherto enjoyed by the rich and the upper middle class. “There were many duplicate connections and the subsidised LPG was diverted to commercial and industrial segments. And, the poorest of the poor never had access to LPG.”