By IANS,
New Delhi : In a breather for economically weaker families, the Delhi government Monday announced that it would provide three more subsidised cooking gas cylinders to over 3.5 lakh families covered under the ‘Kerosene Free Delhi’ scheme.
“The Delhi government will give three subsidised cooking gas cylinders to the poor under its Kerosene Free Delhi scheme. These will be in addition to the six subsidised cylinder limit announced by the central government,” said Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit after a cabinet meeting.
Launched in August, the Kerosene Free Delhi scheme covers the Below Poverty Line (BPL) and Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) households and those residing in ‘jhuggi’ or shanty relocation colonies. Under the scheme, poor families are provided LPG cylinders and gas stoves.
“Government is committed to safeguard the interests of ‘aam aadmi’. It has once again taken a significant decision to provide relief to the poor families by mitigating the effects of inflation as far as cooking gas is concerned,” Dikshit added.
The Delhi government will pay the subsidy cost of the additional cylinders, which will come around Rs.350 per cylinder. The market price of each cylinder is around Rs.700.
The Kerosene Free Delhi scheme is part of the Rajiv Gandhi Gramin LPG Vitrak Yojana. To implement the scheme, Rs.22.75 crore would be borne by the central government, while the remaining Rs.85.91 crore by the Delhi government.
The central government last Thursday hiked diesel prices by Rs.5 per litre and capped the supply of subsidised cooking gas to six cylinders per household in a year.