Smokeless villages
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, April 16 2018:
IOC State Level Coordinator, SI Singh has stated that the Ministry of Rural Development is planning to transform 573 villages outof nine districts of the State into smokeless villages by May 5.Speaking to media persons at a media interaction programme on Gram Swaraj Abhiyaan at IOC Conference hall, BT road today, SI Singh said that the Ministry of Rural Development has selected 13 villages of Imphal East, 5 villages of Imphal West, 1 village of Thoubal, 7 villages of Bishnupur, 118 villages of Churachandpur, 92 villages of Ukhrul, 89 villages of Tamenglong, 190 villages of Senapati and 58 villages of Chandel, for transformation into smokeless villages.
The Ministry is targeting to reach out to 2515 villagers, he said and added that necessary surveys are being conducted at the respective villages.
60 villages, out of 573, have been surveyed till date, he added.SI Singh also informed that he will act as the State Nodal Officer for the nine districts of the State and four DNOs will be utilised as well.
He also explained that the Ministry is planning to transform 6741 villages, out of 80 districts in the entire North East region, into smokeless villages.
SI Singh mentioned that Ujjwala Diwas will be held on April 10 and on this day, distributors will organise LPG Panchayat programmes at every Panchayat.
A mega event will also be organised at Changangei Makha Leikai with Minister Karam Shyam as the chief guest, he added.
Speaking to media persons, SI Singh explained that Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojna (PMUY) scheme was conceptualised with the aim of providing 5 crore LPG connections to the people, with a total expenditure of Rs 8000 crore.
The success of the programme/scheme, has led to the extension of the PMUY scheme and the Central Government sanctioned an extra Rs 4800 crore to ensure coverage of an extra 3 crore people, under the name Expanded Ujjwala scheme.
The Expanded Ujjwala scheme came into the picture as the Government aims to cover all the BPL families which were left out during the initial Ujjwala scheme.
The Expanded Ujjwala scheme will include SC/ST households, PMAY (Gramin), AAY, forest dwellers, Most Backward Classes (MBC), tea and ex-tea garden tribes etc, SI Singh said and added that the process of collecting KYC under Expanded Ujjwala has already started.