Shillong, Apr 23: A target has been set to cover over 1.96 lakh below poverty line (BPL) households in 11,076 villages in Meghalaya under the Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (GSA).

GSA aims at providing free LPG connection.

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) state level coordinator SS Thangkhiew told reporters here on Monday that these households in 11,076 villages have to be covered within May 5, and once all these villages are given LPG connection, they will be declared “smokeless villages.”

At present, Thangkhiew said that LPG penetration in Meghalaya was only 29 per cent, which is the lowest in the country, while admitting that it is a huge task to achieve the target.

Under this special initiative, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) has directed all Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) to provide gas connection under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana to all households (1,96 lakh) in these villages.

The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 1, 2016 in Ballia Uttar Pradesh with an aim of providing clean cooking fuel to BPL women and reducing the drudgery and hazard of biomass cooking.

Under this scheme, BPL families are given LPG connection with a support of Rs 1600 per connection from the Central Government. The beneficiaries are given an option of taking the burner and the first refill on loan or by paying the amount upfront.

Identification of the BPL families is done based on the Socio Economic Census Data of 2011.

For the purpose of achieving the targeted households under Gram Swaraj Abhiyan, he said the documents that are required include ration card, SC/ST certificate, bank account and voter’s identity card (EPIC).

He said the SC/ST certificate of any member of the family is enough for applying for connection, Ration Card (name of the applicant should appear in the BPL Ration Card) and EPIC card.

Bank account is also mandatory as the subsidy amount of the refills would go to the beneficiaries of this scheme, he said.

Thangkhiew said that as per experience and feedbacks received during the awareness campaign, it has been realized that the main hurdle faced while carrying out this scheme was unavailability of SC/ST certificates and Bank Accounts.

To rectify the problems, efforts are being made to take help from the state machinery to expedite the process of issuing SC/ST certificate and help is being sought from the bank to facilitate the opening of zero balance bank account.

Thangkhiew urged eligible households to visit the nearest distributors along with the mentioned documents and two photographs to get LPG connection free of cost.