Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Friday that on the occasion of Holi in March, the state government would once again provide free cooking gas cylinders to the Ujjwala Yojana beneficiaries.
For this, the beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana need to link their bank accounts with Aadhaar.
On the occasion of Dhanteras, the chief minister inaugurated the distribution campaign for free refills of cooking gas cylinders under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana for 1.75 crore eligible families in the state from Lok Bhavan on Friday. Notably, the state government will spend Rs 2,312 crore on this campaign.
Chief Minister Yogi said, “Our government is fulfilling another announcement made in the Lok Kalyan Sankalp Patra during the UP assembly elections in 2022. Before 2014, people were not able to get cooking gas connections and even if a connection was available, the people had to stand in long lines to get refill cylinders.”
He pointed out that there were numerous occasions when police were forced to lathi-charge seeking cooking gas refills. “Poor and disadvantaged individuals could not even think about getting a cooking gas connection. Women of rural and deprived households had to face various illnesses due to the smoke while cooking food on wood and coal,” he added.
Yogi highlighted that the Ujjwala scheme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016, successfully addressed the cooking gas shortage issue in the country. “Almost 9.60 crore families in the country received their first free gas connection, benefiting around 50 crore people,” he added.
“Recently, Prime Minister Modi provided an additional subsidy of Rs 300 to LPG beneficiaries. Today, beneficiaries are receiving the subsidy directly in their accounts without any fraud or theft. Due to being linked to Aadhaar, the subsidy money is reaching the accounts of the beneficiaries directly,” he added.
Chief Minister Yogi stated that through the Ujjwala scheme, Prime Minister Modi has not only provided clean fuel in the form of LPG to the poor and marginalised but has also contributed to saving the eyes as well as the lungs of the people.
Yogi noted that, with the subsidy provided by Prime Minister Modi, LPG had become the most economical fuel compared to kerosene, coal and wood.
Moreover, Chief Minister Yogi symbolically handed over the subsidy amount to 10 female beneficiaries of the Prime Minister Ujjwala Yojana during the programme.
During this programme, Union Minister Kaushal Kishore, Mayor Sushma Kharkwal, MLAs Neeraj Bora, Yogesh Shukla, MLCs Mukesh Sharma, Bukkal Nawab, Chief Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra, and representatives from three government companies – Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum – were present.
