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West Bengal Leader of Opposition (LoP) Suvendu Adhikari on Tuesday wrote a letter to the State Chief Secretary questioning the refusal of new LPG connections to beneficiaries under the Ujjwala Yojana in the state.
"It has come to my knowledge that several people who are visiting their nearest distributors to submit applications for new LPG connections are being refused, citing an absurd reason that the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) is currently non-functional in West Bengal and no new applications were being received," Adhikari said. The BJP leader alleged that District Magistrates of respective districts have issued verbal diktats not to accept applications for new connections any further. "Upon contacting a few distributors, they confided in me requesting confidentiality that the district magistrates of their respective districts have issued verbal diktats not to accept applications for new connections any further. If anyone doesn't want to comply there would be undesirable consequences," Adhikari said. The BJP leader urged the Chief Secretary to see that LPG distributors are assured there won't be any adverse consequences if they accept applications for new LPG connections. "If you are reluctant to take any measures regarding the aforementioned issue, it would mean that there is a certain political motive to derail the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana in the State," Adhikari said. The LoP alleged that the Trinamool Congress government might be exerting undue influence on the administration to deprive people of Ujjwala connections. "I suspect that the ruling party of West Bengal is exerting undue influence on the Administration to deliberately deprive the people of West Bengal from availing the benefits of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana. The reason could be that there might be apprehension within the ruling dispensation of West Bengal that if the people of West Bengal benefit from a Central Government scheme they might get influenced politically," Adhikari said. Sharing some figures, the senior BJP leader mentioned in his letter that as per the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana website, out of the 2,06,36,090 LPG connections as of January 8, 2024, 35,62,747 applicants were from West Bengal which is a whopping 17.26 per cent. "This is a clear indication that there are many takers for the scheme and that there is heavy demand for the scheme in West Bengal. A substantial number of people residing in West Bengal want to switch to LPG Connection as they have noticed that the consumers who have been using it presently have benefitted immensely," he said. (ANI)
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