93k Ujjwala beneficiaries in U'khand get money in their accounts for free LPG refills

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd has transferred money directly to the accounts of 93,000 PMUY beneficiaries in Uttarakhand to help them get three free refills of LPG under the Pradhan Mantri Gharib Kalyan package.

PMUY beneficiaries are to be given three free LPG refills between April-June under the package announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Money was transferred directly to the accounts of 93,000 out of a total of 98,759 active PMUY customers in Uttarakhand during the month of April, BPCL state head Vineet Singh said on Wednesday.

Free LPG refills have also been provided to 79.5 per cent of these customers already and the process to reach out to the rest is on, he said.

The corporation had to battle a number of odds to achieve the target including doing night delivery of LPG in high altitude rural areas as the beneficiaries happened to be in their fields during day-time, Singh said.

He gave the credit for it to the BPCL's contractual workers like delivery boys and drivers of utility vehicles engaged in distribution of LPG cylinders, who took their job in such critical times in mission mode.

Despite the threat of the pandemic, they never shied away from going to the remotest corners of the state to reach PMUY customers, he said.

On the precautions being taken in view of the pandemic, Singh said the LPG cylinders at BPCL's bottling plant in Roorkee, the trucks used to distribute them and the delivery men are sanitised regularly. The SOP in view of COVID-19 is fully complied with, the official said