Inauguration of Mission Office for PAHAL at World Trade Centre

Honb'le Minister of State (Independent charge) Petroleum and natural gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan has inaugurated the PAHAL office in World Trade Centre in New Delhi today. During the inauguration ceremony Shri Saurabh Chandra Secretary Petroleum and Natural Gas and other officers of Ministry and Oil Marketing Companies were also present. Speaking on the occasion, Minister said that PAHAL is one of the most ambitious project of Government of India, being the largest direct benefit transfer scheme in world. He said that ministry is rolling out the scheme in a mission mode and rollout of the scheme will happen in entire country on 1st January 2015. Creation of a separate mission office for PAHAL is one such step in this regard. Government has also approved creation of a separate PAHAL mission office comprising of a Director level officer assisted by one under secretary, one section officer, two assistant and consultants in view of the scale of the scheme. CMDs and all senior officers of Oil Marketing Companies and officers of the Ministry have been made the guardian officers of one district to monitor the implementation of the scheme. In this regard, the Minister has also taken charge of Palwal district in Haryana.PAHAL implementation has also been linked with the Annual performance Appraisal of the Oil Company's officers who have been given the task of supervision and coordination at district level. Minister has interacted with District administrations of over 40 Districts, with a view to ensure there is coordination between various stakeholders and also for a seamless roll-out across the country. In this context, it is planned to cover another 10 Districts before the end of this year, as part of this exercise. In this regard it is important to mention that Ministry has already launched the scheme in 54 districts of the country on 15.11.2014 where the progress of the scheme has been quite satisfactory. The scheme will be extended to all districts of the country on 1st January 2015 covering approximately 15.34 Crore LPG consumers. So far 5.38 Crore LPG Consumers have already provided the details of Aadhaar / bank accounts and are eligible to receive the subsidy in their bank accounts. An amount of Rs.549 Crore has already been transferred into the bank account of 17.9 Lakh LPG consumers since 15.11.2014.