The central government is working towards connecting all the North East states with piped liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) under the Indradhanush Gas Grid Ltd, Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Rameshwar Teli said here today.
Teli was speaking at a programme where 10 women BPL beneficiaries were given free cooking gas connections under the Centre’s Ujjwala scheme.
Piped gas would smoothen supply of LPG to the North East states, with each capital city connected via a grid.
Despite the recent storm he has kicked up, cabinet minister Sanbor Shullai, who, like Teli, is also of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was present. Shullai has been attacked by BJP allies over the way he interrupted the Speaker of the Assembly while addressing presidential hopeful Draupadi Murmu last week. Shullai also then made stab-in-the-back allegations against party colleague and MLA AL Hek.
According to Teli, only 62 percent of people eligible (women in BPL families) for Ujjwala connections actually have one. He called for awareness programmes to be carried out in rural areas. Teli had also been informed by the district administration that people in rural areas prefer to use firewood and charcoal over LPG. Although he did not mention it, the rising cost of cooking gas could be one factor in its slow uptake.
The Union minister of state added that the Centre also wants to target 9 lakh beneficiaries to register for the E-Shram card because at present there are only 2 lakh registered. E-Shram is a database of workers in the unorganised sector.
