Now Pushpa, a graduate from Ormanjhi Block will not have to go far from her native village in search of firewood anymore. Similarly, done away with the age old practice of lighting up the muddy ‘Chulhas’, Geeta Devi from Bero will heave a sigh of relief now. All thanks to Prime Minister Ujjawala Yojana (PMUY) scheme which provides the BPl families with assistance of free lPG.
Gone are the days when women and adolescent have to travel to distant places in search of dried leaves, woods and other flammable materials to lit the handmade ‘Chulhas’ to prepare meals which ultimately results in severe health consequences. As the tagline for the Prime Minister Ujjawala Yojana (PMUY) suggests ‘Swachh Indhan, Behtar Jeevan’ several women folk of rural pockets will now spent a dignified life.
Under this scheme as many as 500 beneficiaries of Ranchi District were given free lPG connection on Tuesday at Collectorate in presence of several dignitaries. The target extends to cover 5899 BPl families under this ambitious project in Capital City. Notably, Jharkhand government has planned to provide free lPG connections to one lakh beneficiaries this year.
Urban Development Department Minister, CP Singh present as the Chief Guest on the occasion said that the pain in cooking in fume and spending long hours at smoldering place cannot be expressed in words.
“Even today in rural belts across the State several women are reluctant to spend hours in smoke. With the PM Narendra Modi vision to provide BPl people with free lPG service, today approximately one crore people have given up their lPG subsidy. However, before giving the free connection all officials must cross examine the documents of the people who have applied for the service to curtail red-tapism as the benefits are only for deprived people,” added Singh.
Notably, the scheme aims to provide five crore lPG connections in the name of women in BPl households nationwide. The scheme also intends at replacing the unclean cooking fuels mostly used in the rural pockets with the clean and more efficient lPG.