NEW DELHI: The government On Monday announced a new initiative to provide cooking gas to women members of BPL families with state support.
"I have set aside a sum of Rs 1000 crore in Union
Budget 2016
to meet the initial cost of providing these LPG connections," finance minister Arun Jaitley said.
The scheme will go on for 2 years and will cover 5 crore BPL households.
"The scheme will free the women in rural areas from the curse of smoke while cooking. It will also reduce the time spent on cooking," Jaitley said.
"The scheme will also generate employment for the youth in rural areas as they join the supply chain," the finance minister said.
Arun Jaitley thanked the 75 lakh households that gave up LPG subsidy on their own on the call of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.