India Releases Cooking Gas for Burning Kashmir
India Releases Cooking Gas for Burning Kashmir
India today launched a gas connection scheme for the people of Kashmir who have been facing an unprecedented violence for the past over two months.
Ms. Mehbooba Mufti, the chief minister of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) along with a slew of other politicians launched Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) in Srinagar.
According to a government statement, this marks another step in the direction of providing Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) connections to 50 million families who are Below Poverty Line (BPL).
Kashmir has been facing a series of violent incidents since the killing of a 22-year-old rebel leader Burhan Wani by the Indian security forces on July 8 in an encounter which many believe was avoidable.
Nearly 100 people have died and thousands injured in the conflicts between the supporters of Burhan Wani and the Indian security forces in Kashmir, which is a disputed territory between India, Pakistan, and China.
As the unrest in Kashmir is assuming alarming proportions, the Indian government is trying to woo Kashmiris by offering state doles such as gas connections.
As a symbolic launch of the PMUY, women from BPL families were handed over connections during the function by the chief minister of J&K and India’s petroleum minister.
PMUY, which was launched by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May at Ballia (Uttar Pradesh), is a scheme to provide clean cooking fuel to the women belonging to the ‘Below Poverty Line’ (BPL) households across the country.
The scheme aims to provide LPG connections to 50 million BPL households by 2019 and is a part of larger program of adding 100 million new LPG connections by 2019 to achieve full coverage of connections in Indian households.
The government believes that by providing LPG connections to BPL households will ensure universal coverage of cooking gas in the country.
According to the government, the scheme of providing clean cooking fuel will also reduce drudgery and the time spent on cooking and will also provide employment for rural youth in the supply chain of cooking gas.
PMUY scheme provides assistance of Rs. 1600 to the woman beneficiary. The money covers security deposit of domestic cylinder and pressure regulator, Suraksha hose, domestic gas consumer card, and installation charges.
