IOC plans 1,200 LPG panchayats in Tamil Nadu on safe use of cooking gas

The Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) on Friday announced that it would organise 15,000 LPG panchayats across the country on April 20 to promote awareness, safety and popularise the use of LPG as a safe cooking fuel option as part of the Ujjwala Diwas day. 

R Sitharthan, executive director, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, Indian Oil, and the State Level Coordinator, said about 1,200 such LPG panchayats would be held in Tamil Nadu and 16 in Puducherry. 

According to him, the LPG panchayats have a four-pronged agenda — to promote awareness about LPG use, its benefits and reiterate its safety aspects, to give out mark Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) LPG connections to identified and selected beneficiaries and to create awareness about the expanded PMUY scheme and to collect KYC (Know Your Customer) documents for the expanded PMUY customers. 

Stating that the 2 crore LPG mark has been reached in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, he said about 22 lakh estimated customers are yet to be covered under the extended PMUY scheme’s seven categories. 

Pointing out that the Gram Swaraj Abhiyan is an effort under which various government initiatives are being undertaken from April 14 to May 5, he said, “During this period April 20 is to be observed as Ujjwala Diwas to promote PMUY objectives.” 

He added that the Ujjwala Diwas would be observed by the oil industry on that day as part of the Gram Swaraj Abhiyan initiative of the union government. 

“Moreover, it is also our endeavour to ensure 100 per cent LPG penetration in select villages and 1,477 such villages have been chosen in Tamil Nadu and 10 in Puducherry to make them smokeless villages,” he added.