In many places the price of cooking gas has crossed Rs. 1000. In such a situation, although the price varies from place to place, it is not going beyond a thousand. At the same time, the problem of stove smoke is not decreasing. To get rid of this problem and to provide relief to women by removing smoke from the kitchen, the Central Government has started the facility of free Ujjwala gas connection. As a result of this initiative of the government, the common man can now easily avail the benefits of Ujjwala gas connection. But now the central government has issued new guidelines for this project. And this has dealt a huge blow to the common man.
New guidelines for Ujjwala Gas Scheme
Recently the Central Government has informed that several guidelines are being issued for Ujjwala gas connection. These clearly state that if a customer has his own three or four wheeler or fishing boat, he will not get the benefit of this scheme. The matter does not end here, the Center has also said that if the area of a person’s house is 30 square meters, he has three or four wheeler agricultural machinery and the monthly income of any member of the family is Rs 10,000, then he will not be given a gas connection under the Ujjwala scheme. In such cases, the responsibility of scrutiny of the application has been given to the dealers. It has also been told that if anyone hides any information, the dealers will have to take responsibility for it. This has increased a lot of pressure on dealers.
Pressure on dealers regarding guidelines
Dealers claim that if all the guidelines sent by the Central Government are followed, many poor families will be deprived of the benefits of this government scheme. Not only this, in this market of rising prices it is very difficult to run a family on Rs 10,000 per month.
In such a situation, it is being said that if their income is more than Rs 10,000, they will not be given gas connection. This is the reason why many people are being deprived of this scheme. Many people have bought autos by taking loans from various places to make ends meet. Many people buy all these vehicles to meet the family expenses. But there also the Center has shown a red flag. As a result, only three-four applications have been submitted so far.
Incidentally, the gas producing company informed that in the previous phase many ‘rich’ families got the benefits of the Ujjwala Gas Scheme. But after getting the gas connection, many people did not take the cylinders. Hence the dealers were instructed to identify all those families and take back the cylinders.
As a result, there was a lot of dispute between dealers and customers. This is why many new conditions have been imposed this time. In this context, Rajeev Bhowmik, a gas dealer from Purba Burdwan, said, “Some consumers have applied for the Ujjwala scheme. They will be given connections only after verification. Of course, consumers will have to follow them.”
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