By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: The Government of India has announced free refills for all the Ujjwala Yojana consumers for the next three months, i.e. from 1st April 2020 to 30th June 2020 in view of COVID-19. This forms a part of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana.
8 Crore PMUY (Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana) beneficiaries will be entitled to free domestic LPG cylinders. Accordingly, it has been decided to transfer the full RSP (Retail Selling Price) of the refill cost for April”20, in advance, to the linked bank account of Ujjwala beneficiaries solely for the purpose of utilising this amount to purchase the free LPG cylinders.
Similarly in Odisha, Oil Marketing Companies have initiated fund transfer amounting to Rupees 341 crores as the advance amount of 1st refill. OMCs in Odisha till the end of 14th April have delivered 5.88 lakhs free LPG refills to PMUY customers. Beneficiaries of the State have come forward to thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi for this assistance amid this crisis.
Bhanumati Sahoo, a Ujjwala beneficiary of tribal-dominated Rayagada district says, “I pay my gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for providing us free LPG cylinder during this lockdown when we have no option to work and earn.”Similarly, Banita Panda of Berhampur, Amita Das of Balasore and Arati Mangaraj of Bhubaneswar have also expressed their gratitude to Prime Minister.
A PMUY customer is entitled to one cylinder per month. The beneficiary can book the next refill only after 15 days of receipt of the last refill. The booking of refill must be done through IVRS or registered mobile number. Refill acknowledgment can be OTP based/Lat-long capture/undertaking, besides cash-memo signature and blue book entry. Since the inception of the PMUY free refills under PMGKY, Oil Marketing Companies across India have initiated fund transfer to 7.23 crores PMUY beneficiaries amounting to a sum of Rupees 5663 crores and have delivered 1.32 crores of free LPG refills to PMUY customers.
Oil Industries are at the helm of India’s fight against COVID-19 by continuing their role as an energy provider to the Nation. Starting from the Oil & Gas Ministry/Senior most people of Oil Industries to the delivery man/ pump attendant who is the last link of the chain have worked day and night ensuring that petrol, diesel, LPG, etc reach to the consumers at all the time adhering the norms of social distancing, proper sanitisation, and other safety norms.
Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas & Steel, Dharmendra Pradhan has welcomed the initiative of Oil Marketing Companies. In a Tweet, he said, “Welcome the humanitarian decision taken by Indian Oil, BPCL and HPCL. This gesture of goodwill is recognition of the services rendered by our personnel in these trying times. The well-being of our workers is of paramount importance; this compassionate move will strengthen the safety nets of our workforce aiding India’s fight against corona.”
This initiative of GOI being undertaken on mission mode by OMCs under the aegis of MoP&NG has been widely appreciated by beneficiaries, society, media and other shareholders. OMCs have further enhanced their delivery infrastructure and bottling capacity to ensure availability of LPG cylinders through home delivery maintaining all norms and also are working in close tandem with authorities at State & District level.
