Nationalist Congress Party punches holes in Centre’s LPG gas scheme

Mumbai: Questioning the efficacy of the Centre’s Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Maharashtra women wing’s chief Chitra Wagh has produced a video on women   from Ahmednagar, Nasik and Thane who turned to mud stove due to the alleged high cost of LPG cylinders.

With the price of a cylinder a major concern, women despite having gas cylinders’ connection in their homes, are turning towards traditional chulha (stove), she said.

Ms Wagh along with her party colleagues visited rural parts of Thane, Nashik and Ahmednagar districts recently. “Women were complaining about the gas cylinder prices. So when I visited their houses, I got to know that they have stopped using these gas stoves and returned to mud stove,” said Ms Wagh.

She also rubbished the claims of union government that Ujjwala scheme has changed the lives and minimised the hardships of women.

“PM Modiji keeps talking about it everywhere, but look at the ground reality. No women are using it. This scheme is terribly failed due to such higher prices of cylinders,” said Ms Wagh.

The PMUY was launched in 2016 and seeks to provide LPG connections to BPL families with the support of `1600 per connection in the next three years.

In a video which Ms Wagh shows as a proof, villagers claim that they had to pay money to get the gas connection. Union government has claimed that it has given these connections free of cost. “People have paid between Rs 2,000 to 8,000 at some places for getting gas connections. PM Modiji keeps talking about free of cost connections. But his tall claims are flat on the ground,” alleged Ms Wagh on Monday.