Distribution takes off from Ballia: Modi’s free LPG scheme to ‘benefit 5 cr families’

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Pradhan will travel to the district on April 23 to review the preparations for the programme.

During the event, the PM will hand over LPG connection to 10 BPL families to kickstart the distribution process, which will be undertaken across the country from the next day onwards. Nearly 10,000 families will be covered under the scheme in Ballia alone.

Sources in the BJP say the PM chose Ballia for the launch because the district is considered “backward” in development parameters and youths in large numbers migrate to other states and gulf countries in search for jobs. A senior BJP leader claimed that the idea was to select “a place only within eastern UP”.

“After the Lok Sabha elections, the PM has visited Bareilly, Saharanpur and Lucknow at least once and his Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi several times. This time, it was planned to organise his visit in a district that falls under Gorakhpur region of eastern UP,” the leader said.

MP Bharat Singh said that the Centre has decided to distribute free LPG connection — with a set of cylinder, stove and regulator — to 1.5 crore BPL families in the current financial year. He said that a total of “five crore” families will be benefited under the scheme in the coming years.

The event will be organised in a field at Maldapur village where Modi had earlier addressed an election rally during the Lok Sabha elections in 2014.

BJP district president Vijay Bahadur Singh said that more than two lakh party workers from Ballia and adjoining districts will attend the event.