A day after the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana was launched to provide free LPG connections to the poor, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav in an apparent bid to take credit, on Monday said the purchasing power for fuel is being provided by his government through Samajwadi Pension fund.
“LPG cylinders have been arranged. But the poor will be able to purchase the fuel only with the help of Rs 500 Samajwadi pension which the government will give to 55 lakh women,” Mr. Yadav said.
His remarks came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched the Rs. 8,000 crore scheme here to provide 5 crore free LPG connections to women members of BPL households.
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The Chief Minister said the Samajwadi Pension scheme will take care of the fuel cost of gas cylinders.
“Arrangement for gas cylinder has been made but the cost for fuel will be taken care of by the Samajwadi Pension scheme for which state government will give Rs. 500 each to 55 lakh women,” Mr. Yadav said at a public meeting organised at Bairiya on the sixth death anniversary of former minister Shardanand Anchal.
He said if given another chance by the people in 2017 Assembly polls, no poor woman will be deprived of the pension scheme and said the state will take care of treatment of farmers in case of accidents in time to come.
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Attacking the NDA government, Mr. Yadav said at the time of setting up of Niti Ayog it was said that States will get more share but that had not been the case with Uttar Pradesh.
Referring to attacks on his government over the law and order issue, he said a new scheme will be launched in July to ensure that the response time of the U.P. police is reduced to 10 minutes from 20 minutes now.
- PTI