IMPHAL, Jul 15: Due pro-cess has been initiated to provide LPG connections free of cost to BPL families of the State under the Pradhan Man-tri Ujjwal Yojana (PMUY). According to information received from IOC’s Imphal Divisional Retail Sales Office, all families belonging to BPL category would be given LPG connections free of cost under PMUY. When a woman belonging to a BPL family is given LPG connection, she has to pay prices of only refill and stove. For other necessary equipment, the expenses would be borne by the Government.
A sum of Rs 1750 would be borne by the Government for one LPG connection gi-ven under PMUY and this amount includes Rs 1150 for LPG cylinder security deposit, Rs 100 for pressure regulator, Rs 150 for hose pipe, Rs 250 for hot plate inspection, Rs 50 demonstration and another Rs 50 for DGCC/blue book. Only the BPL families listed in the Socio Economic Caste Census 2011 would be entitled to free LPG connections. Around one lakh BPL families of the State are included in the centralised data (Socio Economic Caste Census 2011), informed the source.
If the one lakh BPL families of the State should be given LPG connections (single cylinder), the Government of India would have to expend around Rs 17.40 crore. For successful implementation of the scheme in Mani- pur, IOC’s Imphal Divisional Retail Sales Office would tie up with district administrations. IOC has already written to the district administrations to take up necessary steps for successfully implementation of PMUY. The task of inviting applications for free LPG connections would be handled by district administra- tions.
For effective implementation of PMUY in Manipur, IOC has nominated Imphal Divisional Retail Sales Manager and State Level Coor- dinator SI Singh as the State nodal officer. Five other officials have also been nomina- ted as district nodal officers. A meeting of the State nodal officer and LPG distributors was held last Tues- day and the meeting deliberated on effective implemen- tation of the scheme. LPG distributors would go to BPL families residing within their respective areas of operation and deliver KYC forms so that no eligible families are not left out from the initiative.
It is said that Aadhar numbers would be made compulsory while submitting KYC forms. Details of all the applicants who have submitted KYC forms would be fed to a computer system and the data would be compared with the data of the Socio Economic Caste Census in order to verify whether they actually belong to BPL category or not. The beneficiaries can pay the price of LPG refill directly or they can take it on loan in accordance to their choices.
If the refill is bought directly, the subsidy would be transferred to bank account. However, it the refill is taken on loan, the subsidy would not be transferred to bank account as it would be adjusted with the price of the refill, added the official.
