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AP extends gas scheme to urban poor, draws flak

Syed Amin Jafri in Hyderabad

The Andhra Pradesh government has launched a subsidised cooking gas scheme for poor women in the urban areas.

Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu has kickstarted the scheme at a function in Uppal Kalan municipality on the Hyderabad outskirts at the weekend, by formally releasing the liquefied petroleum gas cylinders to some women beneficiaries. The scheme was also launched simultaneously in all the municipal towns in the state simultaneously.

The main opposition party -- the Congress -- however alleged that the launching of the scheme in the urban areas was intended to lure voters in view of the elections to the municipalities and municipal corporations slated for March 2000. The ruling Telugu Desam Party has refuted the Congress charge.

The cooking gas supply scheme for the poor, known as 'Deepam', was confined to the rural areas till now. The state government was to release one million cooking gas connections to the rural women. The scheme has been extended to the urban areas with the sanction of 500,000 LPG connections by the Indian government.

Under the scheme, the state government pays the security deposit of Rs 1,000 per connection to the oil company. The beneficiary has to buy the LPG stove and the gas cylinder on her own.

Chandrababu Naidu had requested Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Ram Naik to release an additional 500,000 LPG connections under the scheme for the poor women living in the urban areas. The Union minister promptly obliged and instructed the officials to release the connections subject to the surrender of the kerosene quota of five litres per LPG.

The state cabinet, which met in Hyderabad at the weekend, approved the cooking gas scheme for the urban poor and sanctioned Rs 500 million for the release of 500,000 connections from February 5 onwards. The cabinet has also laid down the criteria for choosing the beneficiaries under the scheme from among the members of thrift and credit societies, self-help groups and the Development of Women and Children in Urban Areas groups.

Revenue Minister P Ashok Gajapathi Raju told newsmen that out of the one million cooking gas connections sanctioned for poor women in rural areas last year, as many as 580,000 connections were released so far. The release of the remaining connections was being effected in a time-bound manner. The government has sanctioned Rs 1 billion for the cooking gas scheme for the rural areas.

He said that the quotas have been earmarked for different municipal towns, based on the population as per the 1991 census. In the twin cities of Hyderabad-Secunderabad (comprising the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad), as many as 101,763 LPG connections will be released.

The Telugu Desam Party government had launched the Deepam scheme for rural areas on the eve of the general elections to the state assembly and the Lok Sabha last year. Following complaints by the Congress, the Election Commission had kept the implementation of the scheme in abeyance till the elections were over.

Now, again, on the eve of the municipal polls slated for March 2000, the TDP government has launched the scheme in the urban areas, apparently with an eye on the urban voters.

However, Civil Supplies Minister N Janardhan Reddy contends that the ruling party had promised before the last general elections that the scheme would be extended to the urban areas. Hence, the launching of the scheme now could not be linked with the civic polls, he claimed.

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