Direct transfer of amount planned
With the talk of government working to restrict subsidy burden and controversy over cap on subsidised LPG cylinders, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday said the Government was aware of the need to provide some subsidy to the rural poor for domestic LPG cylinder and electricity as part of the Government’s grand plan to provide energy to all.
Making the inaugural address at the International Seminar on Energy Access here, Dr. Singh said government was planning to transfer subsidy amount directly to bank accounts of bonafide beneficiaries. ```We aim to provide every Indian household with clean cooking fuel. This is a huge task but it is not unattainable. It is something we must do on priority,’’ he added.
The Prime Minister said it was a fact that most urban households use LPG as a means of cooking and efforts have been made to introduce LPG in rural areas especially for the poor sections of the society. ``We recognize that the rural poor will need some subsidy to afford electricity and LPG. The issue is to target the subsidy as best as possible,’’ Dr. Singh said.
He informed that a pilot project has been launched in Mysore district of Karnataka where 27,000 deliveries of subsidised cylinders were made by delivery boys after successful biometric authentication of any family member present at home using the unique identification number. ``In the next phase it is planned to transfer the subsidy amount directly to the bank accounts of bonafide beneficiaries. Around 12 per cent of around 190 million rural households use LPG to meet their cooking energy needs. Giving all the 240 million households in the country an entitlement of six LPG cylinders per year will require only around 25 million tonnes of LPG. This should be manageable for our country,’’ he said.
Dr. Singh said the Union Government aims to provide 24x7 power to all households in the country and affordable access to electricity in the next 5 years. ``As a result of our efforts, more than 100,000 villages have been provided with electricity connections in recent years. One million households in India are now using decentralised solar energy to meet their lighting energy needs. The government plans to install 20 GW of grid connected solar power by 2022. At present renewable power represents about 12 per cent of the total installed generating capacity in India. We hope to light up around 20 million rural households with solar home lighting by 2022,’’ Dr. Singh said.
He said the government aimed at accelerating the overall deployment of renewable energy in India to achieve around 55 GW of renewable power by the year 2017.
Keywords: Manmohan Singh, CII, UN Millennium Development Goals, LPG cylinder subsidy, solar lighting
In a globalized world with broad horizons and hitherto contested loyalties, countries do not classify one another as friends and enemies once for all. Markets establish a balance between demand and supply. Merchants stretch themselves to buy cheap and sell dear where ever they can. Democratic governments do not stand in the way of free trade. There is no need to sacrifice the interests of our consumers for the sake of friends of our elites. Gas is available in Iran and countries around the Caspian sea. Pakistan has expressed its willingness to grant secure passage to pipes for oil and gas, in return for a modicum of royalty. Subsidies have a habit of not reaching the man on the street. There is no need to compel the people of India to go back to coal and firewood. There are limits to ecological burden on the environment. It has already become too frail to stand the additional damage. If globalization is good for FDI, it must also be good enough for oil and gas.
Why only the rural poor, dear PM, should have subsidy for domestic LPG? A minimum of eight cylinders at 50% subsidized rates plus another four at 25% subsidy for all domestic consumers whether rural or urban will be a start. In the next ten years, it is essential to reduce the dependence on domestic LPG to fuel our kitchen to less than 50 percent if we are to come anywhere near meeting our per capita foot print on carbon emissions. In other words, technologies that eliminate dependence on fossil fuels must be given preference and concessions for Indians to have a standard of quality living that justify the high proportion of taxes on our incomes.
Promises are made to be fulfilled.Here we,in India are disgusted with unfulfilled promises and high sounding rhetoric used in random by PM and his colleagues in the ministry and most CMs of the states.It is high time for them to deliver.People may not take it lying down for long.At the moment people are searching for a way out.They are fed up with mis-governance,corruption in high places and unending high inflation.
Let the government have absolute control on the uniform distribution of basic needs among all the states,including water resources, electricity, petroleum products etc.No state can remain idle on developing such needs by themselves.Even then there would be some unavoidable constraints or restrictions, that would be solved with this socialistic thinking of the federal nature of our country.
the target "Affordable electricity to all in 5 years" is welcome.Let projects like kudamkulam may be let free.Then only it could be a reality.
Dear PM, I have to appreciate you for your courage! You have no hesitation in giving false promises and for telling lie repeatedly!! Please ask your media advisor, he will tell you about what people think of you!!
When will India move ahead of these things ..Electricity is the most
basic utility in today's life..... 65 years of independence and still
major part of rural India is in dark..Its a huge shame on Congress
government ...They have ruled India for so many years and have thought
of only looting people of India and nothing else...
sir in five years we may have enough electricity but the poor man in
village will still use the cow dung as fuel because of the prohibitive
cost of electricity. the need is to find ways to produce cheaper electricity with nonpolluting technology with less maintenance cost
like transporting the fossil fuel. Though the initial cost will be high
but in the long run cost of production will fall and then only the poor
man will be able to use it.cheap electricity will also fuel growth of
industry
This is just a gimmick...They had all the time at their disposal to fix the problems in power sector and they missed it at every turn and they want another mandate of 5 years to fix it ?
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