BHUBANESWAR: Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday accused the BJD Government of carrying out a false political campaign against Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) which, he said has exposed the regional outfit’s fear about rising popularity of the scheme among poor families of Odisha.
Pradhan responded after the State Government demanded that subsidy be substantially enhanced for LPG refilling and the entire amount be provided upfront to make the benefits of PMUY reach the poor.
Minister for Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Surya Narayan Patro raised the demand in a letter to Pradhan. Stating that 35,16,384 households have been covered in Odisha under the programme since it was launched in May 2016 to provide clean cooking fuel to the poor in the country, Patro said it has been experienced that the refill has been very poor for these connections.
Though the beneficiaries have been provided deposit-free new LPG connections under the scheme, only 8,18,786 beneficiaries have taken second refill in 2016-17, Patro said and added that the number further dropped to 6,45,265 (18.3 per cent of total coverage) for 2017-18 (till July 24, 2018). Poor rate of refilling is a clear indication of shifting back to biomass for cooking purposes by the beneficiaries covered under the scheme, he added.
Drawing the attention of Pradhan to the assessment report of CRISIL on household cooking fuel usage and willingness to convert to LPG, Patro said in Odisha more than 90 per cent households have highlighted high cost of LPG refilling as a major barrier for shifting towards the cooking gas. If the barrier of high recurring cost of refill of LPG is not addressed immediately, the basic objective of the scheme will be defeated, he added. Responding to the letter from Patro, the Union Minister said in a series of tweets that Odisha had 19 lakh LPG connections till May 2014 which increased to 72.5 lakh, including 41 lakh, given to BPL families.
“I will request them to cooperate to make Odisha 100 per cent smoke free and not do politics over the scheme,” he said. Stating that he had offered to explain to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and his colleagues how PMUY has transformed the lives of 41 BPL families, Pradhan repeated the same offer to Patro.