Reaching out: Govt gears up to widen cooking gas coverage in J&K

The government is in the process of expanding cooking gas coverage in Jammu & Kashmir as part of its strategy to bring life back to normal in the state. The plan is to ensure 100 per cent liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) penetration by December this year.  

In addition, around 700 retail outlets are expected to come up in the state under recent tenders floated by the three oil marketing companies — Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL), and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL). At least 65,000 households are estimated to be part of LPG network in the state. Some of the sensitive districts that will be in focus are Kathua, Poonch, Reasi, Ramban, and Kishtwar. 

Currently, all households in 17 of the 22 districts in the state have LPG connections. In districts like Ramban, however, the LPG penetration is as low as 69 per cent, compared to a national average of 94 per cent. Reasi district has 73 per cent penetration.

As of April this year, the state had 2.98 million cooking gas connections, of which around 1.05 million were under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY).  After the promulgation of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2019 in August, the state is cut off from the rest of the country as part of precautionary measures by the government. The new law reconstituted Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories —Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh with effect from October 31 this year. “Expansion of the LPG bandwidth will ease the current situation in the region. The companies have already started stocking petrol and diesel for the upcoming four months, when heavy snowfall prevents movement of our products,” said a senior official in one of the government-owned oil marketing companies. 

Companies would be going for a massive door-to-door outreach programme. They have started advertising through radio and banners asking consumers to join the Ujjawala scheme. LPG Panchayats for creating awareness about the fuel’s use would be conducted. This would, however, depend on permission from security agencies. Companies are facing some challenges because of communication blackout in the Kashmir region.
 

A team of officials, including representatives from the three companies, and Ashutosh Jindal, joint secretary in the Union ministry of petroleum and natural gas, had recently visited the state to speed up the provision of LPG connections.

Total LPG sales in the state during 2018-19 stood at 204,700 tonnes. The per capita sales of all the petroleum products in the state was 119.7 kilo gram (kg), compared to 50.5 kg in Bihar and 91.1 kg in Uttar Pradesh. Part of the reason for higher individual LPG consumption in the state is because of its cold climatic conditions and higher purchasing power. With the expansion of LPG through Ujjwala Yojana in recent years, allocation of kerosene for the state has decreased by 35 per cent from 90,200 tonne in 2014-15 to 58,500 tonne in to 2018-19. The state collected Rs 1,449 crore in various taxes on petroleum products last year.