Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs (FCS&CA) and Tribal Affairs, Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali today said that the government is soon going to launch second phase of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) to cover additional households in the state.“The expanded phase of PMUY will cover the households belonging to scheduled categories, beneficiaries of PMAY- Gramin, Antyodaya Anna Yojana, forest dwellers.The beneficiaries to be covered, which are in addition to the households identified under Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC), will also be provided deposit free LPG connections,” the Minister told a meeting here today.The meeting was attended by FCS&CA functionaries, representatives of Oil Companies. The deputy commissioners of various districts attended the meeting via video conferencing.The Minister directed all the Deputy Commissioners to frame the list of eligible beneficiaries at the earliest as the government has decided to launch the second phase in the first week of May.The Minister informed that J&K has been ranked No 1 state in the country for implementation of the scheme adding that around four lakh free LPG connections have been issued under PMUY to the beneficiaries against the 5.07 lakh beneficiaries whose KYC have been done.He said the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has decided to organize "Ujawala Diwas" on April 20, 2018 under "Gram Swaraj Abhiyan" of Ministry of Rural Development. The Minister informed that on the day 18,600 new LPG connections would be distributed among the already identified beneficiaries.
The Minister asked the deputy commissioners to play role in organizing the "Ujawala Diwas", laying platform for saturating LPG connection in identified villages and giving momentum to the prestigious scheme. It was informed that the day will be celebrated at 186 places in the state. The meeting was informed that on the day 124 villages of nine districts of Jammu province would be declared smokeless which include 8 villages of Rajouri, 19 villages of Kathua, 2 villages of Doda, 1 each of Ramban and Kishtwar, 19 villages of Udhampur, 3 villages of Reasi, 58 villages of Jammu and 13 villages of Samba.During the meeting the Minister was informed that adequate stock of LPG are available across the state, while the department has already issued letter of intent for opening of 12 new gas agencies in the state.Meanwhile, the Minister asked the representatives of oil companies to expedite the process for the establishment of LPG bottling plants at Anantnag, Kargil and Rajouri.However, the minister took serious note of negligence and lack of safety measures during supply of LPG by taking loaded supply trucks to heavily populated localities.The Minister said that the LPG should be delivered to homes of each consumer adding that practice of taking loaded trucks pose serious safety risk to the people.For this, he directed the officers of FCS&CA and Legal Metrology to monitor and keep a vigil to check such lapses.The meeting was attended by Commissioner Secretary FCS&CA, M.D. Khan, Director, FCS&CA, Jammu, R.A Inqlabi, Controller Metrology, R.K Katoch, Joint Controller V S Sambyal, Financial Advisor FCS&CA Zia Qazi, representatives of various oil companies, other senior officers of concerned departments were present on the occasion.