Jharkhand may have been the first State in the country to launch free oven along with gas connections given under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s brainchild Ujjwala scheme but it appears to be an uphill task as of now.
Against the target set for the State to provide 2853904 connections the achievement so far has been meagre 35 per cent since the scheme was launched in October 2016.
Official figure suggests that just 11,29,542 gas connections have been provided to poor families in the State and it is still short of nearly 14 lakh new beneficiaries, thanks to glitches, starting from muddled list of beneficiaries to issues involving dealers and oil marketing companies.
“The families marked in the Social Economic and Caste census, 2011 have to be given free gas connection under the scheme and based on that total 28,53,904 families have been identified in Jharkhand. But so far we have been able to provide connections to only 11,29,542 families. There are about one lakh more beneficiaries whose KYC is complete and connection would soon be issued to them. Yet we have a challenge to provide 14 lakh connections in the State,” said Amitabh Kaushal, Secretary of Food Supply and Consumer Affairs Department. Palamu has been the top performer with 74 per cent achievement while Pakur fared poorly.
The Department along with the 20-point programme implementation committee presidents and members starting from State to district and block levels, conducted a review of the scheme on Wednesday where Chief Minister Raghubar Das was also present. Moreover, the Department, on its part, has modified the modus operandi and decided to furnish list of deserving beneficiaries village-wise as well as PDS shop-wise to District Supply Offers and Marketing Officers. Gas companies would also open 312 new agencies.
“This has been done to ease the identification process. Now, the activists and 20-point presidents and members at block levels can directly pick up names and help them fill up forms to submit to the dealers. We have set a target to do KYC of three lakh beneficiaries every month,” added the Secretary.