Itanagar: The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), a central scheme under which women belonging to BPL families will be provided with clean cooking fuel, was launched today in Arunachal Pradesh.


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The scheme aims at providing LPG connections to five crore BPL households by 2019 across the country and offers assistance of Rs 1,600 for one connection.


Chief Minister Pema Khandu launched the scheme in presence of Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju and state Food and Civil Supplies minister Kamlung Mossang at a function here.


Khandu hailed the scheme and announced that his government will dovetail it with a subsidy of Rs 1,000 for each beneficiary, taking the total subsidy amount to Rs 2,600 against total requirement of Rs 3,500 under the PMUY.


Expressing gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for launching the scheme, Khandu said the scheme will benefit Arunachal Pradesh immensely as more than half of the state's population, specially in rural areas, still use firewood for cooking.


"In these three years, the Prime Minister has launched 90 flagship schemes catering to every section of the society. It is now our responsibility to take these schemes to the genuine beneficiaries in a transparent and judicious manner," Khandu said.


Informing that highest lung cancer cases are reported from the North East, Rijiju blamed it on use of firewood for cooking in almost all households and said PMUY will now change this scenario, providing a clean environment and preserving forests.


As a symbolic launch of PMUY in the state, 24 beneficiaries were handed over LPG connections. Arunachal Pradesh has around 3.04 lakh households with LPG coverage of 65 per cent as on May this year.


PMUY aims at reaching about five lakh beneficiaries, which will take the LPG coverage of the state to 90 per cent, Indian Oil Corporation chief general manager K K Handique earlier said.