Indian Oil attempts smokeless Assam

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, April 18: Indian Oil is going to provide LPG connections to 6,741 villages in the Northeast, including 3,042 villages in Assam alone, by May 5 this year. The step is set to make Assam achieve 100 per cent LPG coverage so as to make it smokeless.

Addressing the media here on Wednesday, Indian Oil Chief General Manager Uttiya Bhattacharyya said: “In Assam, 3042 villages have been targeted to be made smokeless by May 5. About 6.55 lakh LPG connections will be released within this fortnight so that all the targeted villages can be declared smokeless.”

The deadline of May 5 has been set under the Gram Swaraj Abhiyan, which is underway from April 14 to May 5 across the country on the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti.

The Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas will mark April 20 as ‘Ujjwala Diwas’, and a saturation programme for 21,058 villages, including 3,042 of Assam, was conceived to provide LPG connections to all households in these villages and declare them smokeless by May 5. According to Bhattacharyya, special drives have been launched to ensure new enrollment and meet the target, and various programmes will be undertaken to mark Ujjwala Diwas. As part of Ujjwala Diwas, LPG panchayats are to be organized where about 500-700 women will be brought together to share their experiences and improvement in life by switching over to the use of LPG for cooking purposes.