NT NETWORK
PANAJI
As many as 750 households have been lately identified without Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) connections by oil companies in their effort to make Goa a state with cent per cent LPG cylinder usage.
Goa has a tentative deadline of May 31, 2016, to increase the LPG cylinder coverage to 100 per cent and declare itself as a ‘green state.’
Oil companies had a meeting with the petroleum ministry in the second week of April this year to replace kerosene with LPG and avoid the use of hazardous fuel and firewood in houses. Goa is aiming to become the nation’s first state which will be smoke-free with every kerosene-using household switching over to LPG.
Oil company officials said that 750 households without LPG is an early figure as the exercise is in progress. The number of such households has been ascertained after physically verifying data with the households based on ration card information. The deadline will hopefully be achieved, they said.
There are 1.25 lakh families, who avail of kerosene allocation, according to the civil supplies department. Officials in HPCL and BPCL, who are working in coordination with the department, however, said that many families that use kerosene also possess gas cylinders and, therefore, the actual number of households without LPG connection could be less.
The oil companies have launched a statewide campaign in order to urge families to go in for LPG connection. The companies have written to the sarpanchas of village panchayats asking them to spread the message through churches (after mass) and other channels. They are also visiting villages and interior regions to urge households to obtain LPG connection at the earliest. In cities, residents are being asked to contact the nearest dealer.
Below poverty line (BPL) applicants, who cannot afford a cylinder will be provided with a deposit-free connection under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, provided their names appear in the list of Socio-Economic Caste Census 2011 (SECC 2011).
“For the migrant worker population, we are organising camps, visiting fishing villages, industrial areas, wherever workers live and persuading them to go in for LPG,” said a senior source at HPCL. “Migrants do not have ration cards and they are poor. Lack of data relating to them is a major hurdle in meeting the 100 per cent target,” said the source.
The oil companies have come out with smaller five kg cylinders for families, which find the regular 14.2 kg LPG cylinder too costly.
Goa’s consumer base in LPG cylinders is 4.3 lakh households to a population of around 15 lakh people. “The present coverage is nearly 99 per cent and so we are hopeful of meeting the target,” said a BPCL source.