Mehsana village Govindpura first ‘smokeless’ village in Gujarat

The village has a population of over 600 and a literacy rate of 91 percent - higher than the state average.

After Vyachakurahalli village in Karnataka was declared the country’s first “smokeless village” a couple of weeks ago, a tiny hamlet called Govindpura has become the first “smokeless village” of Gujarat, a state where over 63 lakh homes still use age-old sources of fuel like crop residue, firewood and cow-dung cakes, as fuel used for cooking.

On Tuesday, the panchayat development officer of Govindpura village, Waghji Desai, gave a letter certifying the conversion of all households to LPG to the officials of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOC), which is the only supplier of LPG cylinders to this village.
Nestled between tomato farms in Kadi taluka of Mehsana district, the hamlet in north Gujarat, consisting of 143 households, got the “smokeless” tag after all the residents shifted to LPG from traditional sources of fuel, like firewood and kerosene that they used in their kitchens.

“Apart from conserving the firewood that we used to light our ‘chulhas’ everyday, we will also be saving over 300 litres of kerosene that was consumed every month in this village,” said Mansukh Patel, the village sarpanch, as he stood outside the panchayat office, handing over ration cards – with fresh seal of “LPG connection” stamped over them — to womenfolk.

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“This stamp ensures that they will no longer receive kerosene through their ration cards. This includes the 68 households who do not own land and work as farm labourers,” Patel added. The village has a population of over 600 and a literacy rate of 91 percent – higher than the state average.

“This is the first village in entire Gujarat to turn smokeless. We had a hard time convincing the villagers to give up firewood which is freely available, but has a negative effect on the health of the womenfolk. After this success, we will be working on five more villages in the initial phase,” said Utkarsha Telang, assistant manager, IOC.

A ‘chakada’ (a motorcycle-powered vehicle) carrying LPG cylinders was seen making rounds of the village, dropping off cylinders in front of the households, who were recently allotted new connections. Twenty-two-year-old Karishma Sipai, whose six member family is among those who received new connections in the last couple of days, said, “I used to spend two hours every day in collecting the firewood that we will need in the kitchen. But now we will perhaps use firewood only to warm water during winters.” Karishma’s family, who work as farm labourers, used to consume eight litres of kerosene every month as cooking fuel.

Dhrumin Doshi, partner of Dhrumin Gas Service, that supplies LPG cylinders to the village from his outlet located about 20 kilometers away in Sanand, said, “Since November 2015, when this initiative to create smokeless villages began, we have given gas connections to about 32 families in the village. This includes three BPL families and 21 Muslim households.”

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