Bhubaneswar: As many as 30 lakh families would get the LPG connection in panchayt levels under the Pradhan Mantri Ujwalla Yojana, said State nodal officer G Swaminathan here today.
In order to achieve the goal, oil marketing companies would release 30 lakh new LPG connections under PMUY and ten lakh under normal release (Above Poverty Line category) by December 2018, Indian Oil Corporation's Chief LPG Manager and State Nodal Officer G Swaminathan said here.
It has been the vision of Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan that Odisha reaches a LPG penetration of a minimum 70 per cent with a customer strength of more than 75 lakhs by December, 2018, he said.
Addressing a press meet, he said 2,01344 families have already been connected with the LPG under the central scheme while the government has aimed at reaching more 3.47 lakh families in coming days. All formalities in this regard have been completed, he added.
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The State nodal officer said as many as 314 blocks in the State have already been covered under the Centre's flagship programme.
Commenting on the feud ensued at the LPG distribution programme at some places in Odisha, he said there is no guidelines of inviting the local representatives to the event.
Recently, Odisha chief secretary had written to Centre requesting to invite the local people's representatives to the programme.
Chief Secretary AP Padhi, in his reply to the Petroleum secretary's letter seeking state government’s help to avoid disturbance during LPG distribution, had said the elected representatives should be involved in the initiative and shared with the list of beneficiaries.
"The association of local representatives would rapidly facilitate successful implementation of the Ujjwala scheme. The list of selected beneficiaries in any Town, Block or Panchayat should be shared with the local officials and elected representatives for better transparency in the distribution process. Such functions should, preferably, be held in the premises of Government institutions like Blocks, Gram Panchayats and Urban Local Bodies”, Padhi had mentioned in his letter.