Forty lakh women in Telangana will get cooking gas cylinders at ₹500 from the end of this month, as part of the government’s Mahalaxmi scheme, which is one of the six promises made by the Congress before the elections.
As of now, around 40 lakh beneficiaries have been identified which means 40 lakh households would be benefited by the scheme, to start with, government sources said.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi is likely to launch the scheme on February 27.
The beneficiaries should be existing gas consumers who have an active domestic LPG connection and who possess security cards like ration cards issued by both Central and State governments.
Another condition for availing the benefit is that beneficiaries should have applied for the gas subsidy during the Praja Palana programme.
The number of LPG cylinders to be supplied to beneficiaries would be decided based on their average consumption in the last three years. The government and oil companies have this data with them.
Beneficiaries will have to pay the full amount as per the Retail Selling Price (RSP) at the time of refill delivery. Eligible beneficiaries will be transferred the differential amount through back-ended DBT-based online transfer of the subsidy by Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs).
The government of Telangana will provide upfront advance every month to the OMCs, calculated as per the scheme for intended, verified and listed beneficiaries.
The objective of this scheme is women’s empowerment by reducing their dependence and providing them pollution-free cooking medium, Civil Supplies Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy had said earlier. The scheme modalities were recently reviewed by Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy with Ministers and officials.
