‘Free LPG, power to poor to cover over 21k villages’

Puducherry: The secretary (coordination) to the Union government Inder Jit Singh said the Gram Swaraj Ahbiyan (GSA) scheme, which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 14 to extend free LPG connections and electricity supply among other benefits to the poor, will cover 21,058 villages across the country. He was speaking at the conference of the lieutenant governors/administrators of the Union territories at Andaman and Nicobar Islands, said a release from Raj Nivas, Puducherry.

Apart from extending free LPG and power connections to poor villagers, the scheme aims to bring them under insurance cover, open Jan Dhan accounts for them and ensure immunization of their children.

The Union government will implement the scheme with the active coordination of the Union territory administrations, local governments and self-help groups. The Centre has given specific responsibilities to all the departments concerned to ensure effective implementation of the scheme. It has set up a monitoring dashboard for the daily update on the progress made by the each Union territory. It will also monitor the progress on real-time basis through apps and common portals.

Additional secretary (UT) to the Union home ministry P K Srivatsava reviewed the performance of the Union territories on the various Prime Minister-monitored schemes including Swachh Bharat Mission, Jan Dhan Yojna, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), National Health Mission (NHM) and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) among others.

The conference resolved to share the best practices among the Union territories and devise standard operating procedures for effective implementation of various schemes of the Union government. It also resolved to hold intensive contact programmes for the popularizing the schemes of the Union government and strengthen the interaction between the Union government and Union territories.

Puducherry lieutenant governor Kiran Bedi visited the disaster management department of the Andaman and Nicobar islands and control room of the state emergency operation centre. She outlined the various activities of the Raj Nivas in Puducherry that made her office people-friendly. Punjab governor and Chandigarh administrator V P Singh, who chaired the conference, said the Union territory has commenced laying cycle tracks to encourage cycling as a mode of transport. Andaman and Nicobar Islands lieutenant governor Admiral D K Joshi outlined the logistic challenge faced by the Union territory. He summarized the major infrastructural projects in the transport, power and tourism sectors. He said the Union territory extends incentives for the collection of plastic waste materials.