Unified Guidelines for LPG Distributorships issued The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) is committed to provide clean fuel to all households in the country with key focus on rural and difficult areas. In this endeavor, strengthening supply chain of LPG distribution is one of the key initiatives of the Ministry. In this direction, after an elaborate and comprehensive review of the existing distributorship selection policies, a new set of Guidelines have been finalised with the objective of strengthening LPG supply chain with focus on rural areas and creating job opportunities through supply chain system. Union Minister of State (I/C) Petroleum and Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan today unveiled the guidelines. Key features of the Unified Guidelines for Selection of LPG distributorships are:- ? Four broad types of distributorships with varying refill ceiling limits- Sheheri, Rurban, Gramin and Durgam Vitrak. ? Eligibility norms for age, education, fund requirement and ownership of land for godown & showroom have been relaxed to make selection process more participative. ? 33 % reservation to women across all categories has been introduced to encourage women entrepreneurship. 3% reservation for Divyang candidates. ? As a part of Governments Digital India campaign, Online filing, processing and selection has been introduced for Sheheri distributorships on a pilot basis. ? To take care of interest of Defence personnel and their dependents, inter-se priority in selection under Government Personnel category has been introduced. ? Monetary norms for security deposit have been relaxed for the selected candidates belonging to SC/ST and OBCs. ? In order to address the issue of last mile reach of LPG in difficult areas, LPG Suvidha Kendra facility will be introduced for improving delivery of services. ? LPG distributorships would be set up in active collaboration with the State Government agencies to strengthen the supply chain in Durgam areas. Unified Guidelines will pave the way for a more broadbased, participative and transparent system of selection of distributors across the country. In this year, the Oil Marketing Companies will start the process for selection of new distributors in 10,000 new locations. Setting up of these new distributorships will give a tremendous boost to the rural employment opportunities. YB
