Ahmedabad: A total of one lakh Pradhan Mantri LPG Panchayats will be held across the country after the launch of this scheme meant for giving an interactive platform to the rural LPG users especially the beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Ujjawala Yojana (PMUY), by Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Skill Development & Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan and Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani at Mota Ishnapur in Gandhinagar district tomorrow.

Of these, around 7000 will be held in villages across Gujarat in next one an a half years.

Addressing a joint press conference here on the eve of the national launch of the PM LPG Panchayat, State Level Coordinator of the Oil Industry and Executive Director, IOC) Gujarat, Sanjeev Jain said that a total of 100 rural LPG users of neighbouring areas mostly the beneficiaries of PMUY launched on May 1, 2016 would participate in the panchayats. Representatives of oil companies, distributors, ministry, local NGOs and self help groups would also be involved in it, Feed back on service expectations and quality, other issues impacting the realization of full benefits of PMUY, redressal of service related grievance, removing fears and misgivings about use of LPG and quality of food prepared through it in the rural areas etc would be the focus of these LPG panchayats.

To a query he said that against the target of 5 crore free connection to the women of BPL families under PMUY, so far around 3 crore have been provided with it. Of these 11.39 lakh beneficiaries were from Gujarat. ‘However many of the beneficiaries were not taking its full benefit owing to various reasons. The Panchayat would be helpful for them and to increase the rural penetration of safer domestic fuel like LPG. There were a total of 21 corre LPG connection in the country which was around 77%. In the urban areas it was almost 100% while in rural areas it was still only 51%. The per connection use of cylinders per year in urban areas was 7.5 on an average while in rural areas it was only around 4.5 whereas in case of PMUY beneficiaries it was only around 3.25. The panchayats would help increase this number by allaying fears and misgivings of the rural users,” he said adding that around 35% of the beneficiaries in Gujarat have not gone for a refill so far.

He also said that though the government was going to gradually remove the subsidy on LPG yet that for the targeted people like the beneficiaries of PMUY would continue.

To yet another query he said that all across the country around 1.05 crore people have given up LPG subsidy to help the PMUY beneficiaries and the number of such people of the total 82 lakh LPG consumers of Gujarat was around 4.5 lakh.

The inauguration ceremony of the LPG Panchayat would he held at Smt. SV Patel Primary School in Mota Ishanpur in Gandhingar district. Later Pradhan will also participate in the convocation of Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University at its campus in Raisan close to Gandhingar. CM Rupani will be the Chief Guest while Pradhan Guest of honour. Reliance Group head and president of PDPU Mukesh Ambani will also address the gathering on the occasion.

Earlier in the day Pradhan would also inaugurate the Skill Development Institute, Ahmedabad being set up as part of National Skill Development Mission of Government of India by ONGC in association with other Oil PSEs (IOCL, BPCL, HPCL, OIL, GAIL, EIL and Balmer Lawrie). In presence of Dilipkumar Viraji Thakore, Minister of Labour and Employment, Government of Gujarat, Pradhan will inaugurate the institute during an event at around 11 am at the ADS Foundation, Sri Jagannath Cultural Academy and Research Center.

DeshGujarat