LPG connections to 299 Arunachal villages on anvil

LPG connections to 299 Arunachal villages on anvil

Our correspondent

Itanagar, June 5: The Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) will provide LPG connections under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) to about 299 villages in Arunachal Pradesh.

This was disclosed by IOCL Chief General Manager (Assam Oil Division) Uttiya Bhattacharya who along with a team of officials called on Chief Minister Pema Khandu here on Tuesday.

“So far around 8,995 connections have been provided to individual households from the target of 10,000 in the State,” Bhattacharya said.

He said besides running commercial outlets of the petroleum products, the PSU is engaged in providing PMUY connections to the rural poor under the Central government’s Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (GSA). The GSA has a target of providing LPG connections to about 16,000 villages across the country by the end of this year.

Bhattacharya, while giving details of the Indian Oil’s presence and service in the State, said more than 6,000 villages are being covered under the programme in the Northeast.

“Arunachal Pradesh is one of the highest consumers of LPG in the region, which is a great sign. Also it is the only State after Assam to give additional subsidy for a connection to the beneficiaries,” Bhattacharya said.

IOCL has a bottling plant at Kimin in Papum Pare district, which caters to the State’s requirements along with 66 existing distributors, while several are under process of allotment.

The CGM assured the Chief Minister that there would not be any scarcity of LPG in the State.

He said on request of the State government, IOCL has posted a permanent officer and state-level coordinator in the state capital who would coordinate with the State government and other stakeholders on behalf of the PSU.

When requested by Khandu to have more petroleum depots in the State, especially in far flung areas, Bhattacharya and his officials said that IOCL, which has 80 per cent of the share of depots in Arunachal Pradesh, has on date 55 outlets across the State, while 16 more are in various stages of commencing.

Bhattacharya said the PSU will be able to open petrol-pumps wherever the government feels necessary if the government gives plots of minimum requirement. The main depot at Doimukh is being expanded, which is now connected through broad-gauge, and can cater to as many outlets as needed, he said.

The Chief Minister asked the civil supply department to locate government lands in the districts, which can be offered to IOCL to immediately open their outlets.

Khandu assured that the government through the department concerned would keep in touch with IOCL to ease distribution of LPG and other petroleum products like diesel, petrol and kerosene.

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