396 IOCL to take Ujjawala to panchayats

BHUBANESWAR: At a time when the Centre-state slugfest continues over Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), oil major Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) has said it would take up the scheme to the panchayat level.
The PMUY, touted as the largest political initiative of the Narendra Modi government, aims to replace firewood with gas for cooking. The Centre sets an ambitious target to provide LPG connections to five crore BPL women in the country, including 30 lakh in Odisha, under the scheme.
In Odisha, the oil marketing companies (OMCs) have so far conducted 320 LPG distribution melas that covers 314 blocks and provided 2, 01,344 connections. Distribution of 3, 47,478 more connections would be carried out soon.
The IOCL also claimed that after NDA government came to power, LPG penetration level in Odisha has increased from 26% in 2014 to 40% at present.
The IOCL nodal officer, G Swaminathan, said oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan has set a target to ensure LPG connections to 70% people in Odisha against the national average of 64%.
The IOCL has rejected the state government's request to include elected representatives in functions to distribute LPG connections citing that guidelines of the scheme do not allow that.
According to the guidelines of the scheme, school and college principals and teachers, retired government employees, bank officers, lawyers, doctors, media personnel, engineers, ex-servicemen, social workers and freedom fighters are invited as chief guests for distributing LPG connections. The scheme has no provision to invite elected representatives as guests, said Swaminathan.
Swaminathan refused to comment on chief secretary's letter to Union petroleum secretary requesting to involve panchayati raj institution members and MLAs during distribution functions.
On August 11, Union oil secretary K D Tripathi in a letter to chief secretary A P Padhi asked the state government to ensure adequate security for the OMCs while organizing melas to distribute LPG connections. The Union secretary wrote the letter after reports of disruptions came from Nimapada, Athagarh, Paralakhemundi, Nabarangapur, Ganjam and Malkangiri.
The chief secretary, in reply on August 22, requested the Centre to involve local elected representatives while conducting such programmes for smooth implementation of the scheme.
In another letter on August 31, the Union secretary complained that the state government is not extending due cooperation in implementing the subsidized cooking gas scheme which has resulted in a war of words between the BJP and the BJD.