Sambalpur: While the Centre is letting no stone unturned in spreading awareness related to Ujjwala Yojana which is intended to benefit poor women, many villages in Sambalpur disctict of Odisha still have no LPG connections.
One such example is the Maoist-affected Nunvet village in the district. The women here don’t even know about Ujjwala Yojana; and are yet to see LPG cylinders or LPG gas stoves and cooktops. They walk for miles to collect firewood for their daily use which consumes almost half of their day.
“It takes almost half a day to collect firewood. It’s difficult to cook on it too. Our life becomes more miserable during rainy season,” laments Ratna Sahoo a local resident of Nunvet.
Ironically, they have not even heard of such LPG as a cooking fuel.
When OTV approached Samarth Verma, the district Collector of Sambalpur with the problems being faced by the local denizens, he said, “We need to motivate the villagers to use LPG. They are getting firewood at free of cost but LPG connections will require a recurring cost. So, we have to make them understand the sole purpose of this scheme,”
“I will have a discussion with our dealers like BPCL and HPCL, who are implementing the scheme, and ensure that the interested beneficiaries avail the benefits of the scheme at the earliest,” Verma added.