LPG subsidy pilot project launched

The United Progressive Alliance government has launched an ambitious programme for providing subsidised LPG connections to below-poverty-line families.

The programme was launched as a pilot project by Minister of State for Petroleum Jitin Prasada in his Dhaurahra parliamentary constituency in Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh yesterday at a function held at Maigalganj town.

Prasada distributed LPG connections to the heads of 100 selected BPL families at highly subsidised rates.

Speaking at a function to commemorate the occasion, he said that the scheme will be rolled out on a country-wide basis by the oil PSUs from Gandhi Jayanti (November 14).

"The Centre has earmarked a budget of Rs 490 crore for the programme, while 286,607 BPL families are to be benefitted from the programme," he said.

He said the programme has evoked a warm response in Kheri, where at the very initial stage, over 80,000 applications were received.

"After proper scrutiny and verification by the authorities, eligible families would be awarded LPG connections," he said.