Chandigarh,
31st March, 2016: The Chandigarh Administration has been striving since long to make
Chandigarh-‘a Kerosene Free City’. With the efforts of the Chandigarh
Administration, from the 1st April, 2016, the city will finally be
declared kerosene free. Thus, no further distribution of SKO will be done from
the month of April, 2016 and onwards. All the Kerosene Oil Depots (KODs)
located in various areas of the city will be closed down with immediate
effect.
The Department has decided to facilitate the
households presently using Subsidized Kerosene Oil (SKO),by making them to
switch to the usage of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) as an alternate source of
fuel. In the whole process, the following steps have been taken till date
(31.03.2016):-
Conference on Making
Chandigarh a ‘Kerosene Free City’:-
On 18.03.2016,one day
Conference on Making Chandigarh a ‘Kerosene Free City’ was organized by the
Department of Food & Supplies and Consumer Affairs & Legal Metrology,
U.T., Chandigarh at the Conference Hall, U.T., Guest House, Chandigarh. The
conference was chaired by the Sh. Parimal Rai, the Adviser to the Administrator,
U.T., Chandigarh. Sh. Ashutosh Jindal, Joint Secretary(Marketing),Ministry of
Petroleum & natural Gas,GoI also visited the city to take an overview of
the schemes, for the facilitation of kerosene oil using households by releasing
new LPG connections.
2. LPG facilitation Schemes:-
(i) Deposit Free LPG Connection Scheme- for
BPL & AAY households, where these families are being provided with 1 LPG
cylinder, 1 Regulator (worth Rs.1600/- without) free of cost. However the cost
of other equipments will have to be borne by the consumer. The Gas Connection
forms are available free of cost at all the LPG dealers.
(ii) Zero Percent Interest Loan
Scheme- for the rest of the kerosene oil using households
who are not covered under the poverty line, but do not have an LPG connection.
The eligible and
interested households are being provided with 1 LPG cylinder, 1 Regulator,
& 1 Suraksha Pipe (worth Rs.1740/-) under the 0 % Interest Scheme. However
the cost of other equipments will have to be borne by the consumer. The Gas
Connection forms are available with all the LPG Dealers, at the Office of Food
& Supplies, Sector-17,with all the MCs and the Sarpanches free of cost.
The loan amount will be
recovered by the Chandigarh Administration from the subsidy amount on
subsequent refills by an individual till the actual financed amount is
recovered. The undertaking for the same will be signed by the applicant
3. Support from elected representatives:-
To seek the corporation
from the elected public representatives such as – Member of Parliament, Mayor,
Chairman Zila Parishad, the Municipal Councilors and the Sarpanches, letters
were written to all, along with the enclosure of list of camp locations and
coordinating officers for the facilitation of kerosene oil users with LPG
connections.
4. NSS volunteers to assist:-
Keeping in view the big
role played by the NSS volunteers in hand holding of the beneficiaries during
the implementation phase of the DBT in foodgrains scheme, again, the help of
NSS volunteers is being taken to spread awareness and assist SKO beneficiaries
in taking fresh LPG connections.
5. Daily reporting:-
To monitor the daily
progress of the camps, 08 officials/inspectors were deputed. The duty of the
concerned inspectors is to visit the camp site in routine and to provide
assistance to the beneficiaries, wherever needed.
6. Radio Jingles:-
Radio jingles on the
subject of kerosene free city were got prepared, which are being aired on all
city based FM radio channels at regular interval of time.
7. Logo making competition:-
A logo making
competition was started on the MyGov mobile app, in which the winning
participant was to be awarded with Rs.5,000/- cash prize. The last date for the
submission of entries was 15.03.2016. A total of 97 entries were received.
8. Distribution of T-shirts to spread message:-
As a means of
spontaneous publicity among the targeted groups, 500 T-shirts were distributed
among the volunteers as well as the masses with Chandigarh Kerosene Free City
logo.
9. Announcement:-
A pre-recorded message
about the kerosene free city scheme was played in various streets of the
identified localities and the religious places like Mandir, Masjid and
Gurudwara simultaneously by using USB supported instruments, which in turn not
only saved time but was also quite economical.
10. LPG connection
application forms:-
For the speedy
performance,16,000 application forms for the release of new LPG connections to
the beneficiaries were got printed. These forms are being distributed free of cost
to the beneficiaries who want to avail the benefits of the scheme. For the
convenience of the general public, upto 200 forms have been provided to each elected representative say,
MC, Sarpanches at the beginning and more if required at later stage.
11. Pamphlets:-
Every effort has been
made to let the message reach to every households which could extract benefits
from the said scheme. Therefore, 50,000 pamphlets have been circulated among
the masses to spread awareness about the schemes.
12. Cinema format of the video on kerosene free city:-
A short video on
“Kerosene Free City” formatted to cinema format was got prepared, which is
being played regularly in all the theatres/cinema halls during the interval of
the film.
13. Organisation of
Special camps for facilitation:-
From 18.03.2016 to
30.03.2016, a total of 33 special camps have been organized in different
colonies/villages of the city in collaboration with LPG distributors and with
the help of public representatives such as – Municipal Councilors, the
Sarpanches to facilitate the kerosene oil using beneficiaries to release new
LPG connections to them.
Though the camps have
been concluded on 30.03.2016 yet, keeping in view the larger public interest,
the Department of Food & Supplies and Consumer Affairs, U.T., Chandigarh is
planning to organize more such facilitation camps, if required.
The updated status of
LPG connections released as on 31.03.2016 is as follows-
i. The no. of LPG
connections released to BPL/AAY families – 1691
ii. The no. of
connections released to other Kerosene oil using families – 1487
iii. The no. of other
families enrolled for Connections (in process) – 338
iv. The no. of forms to
be collected with the assistance of NSS volunteers (in process) - 530
However, the camps are
still going on at all the LPG Distributorships of all the Oil Marketing
Companies (OMCs), and the willing persons can avail the benefit of the schemes
even by visiting the LPG Distributor nearest to them.
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