People in Delhi stopped using Kerosene making it the‘Kerosene-free City of India’




July 8, 2014 | V. Velayudam

On 1st July, the Delhi Government announced to the media that Delhi has become the first kerosene-free city in India. A scheme was launched in 2012, titled, “Delhi: A Kerosene-free city Scheme”, through which kerosene usage in the city has been completely stopped, leading to savings in the state’s exchequer to the tune of INR 200 crores. This was announced by the Commissioner of Food Supply and Weights and Measures, Mr. SS Yadav.

As part of the implementation of this scheme, holders of Jhuggi ration cards were provided with a two-burner gas stove, regulator, suraksha pipe, LPG cylinders and free gas connection. The people who were given this scheme were the ones below the poverty line and the Antodaya Ann Yojana ration card holders. Out of these card holders, people who were already having LPG connections were not given these benefits.

Once this scheme was announced, it attracted at least around 2.14 lakh applications for free gas connection, out of which around 20000 applications were rejected because those applicants had LPG connections at their homes already. Though Yadav confirmed that this scheme was launched to benefit around 3.56 lakh ration card holders, only 2.14 lakh people applied for the same. The remaining didn’t apply either because they already had LPG connections or because they had to migrate to other cities.

This scheme had a host of other long term benefits. The environment could be protected in a better as toxic wastes emanated from burning of kerosene oil would be reduced to a great extent, mixing with petrol with adulterated chemicals would come down drastically, air pollution would decrease considerably, occurrences of fire accidents and burn injuries would come down and the overall quality of life would go up to a reasonable extent.

Yadav confirmed that in Delhi, a person illegally trading in kerosene, would be punished as per the rules of Essential Commodities Act 1955 and Delhi Kerosene Oil Control Order 1962. People who want to complain against illegal trading of kerosene, could call at the customer helpline number of 1967, Yadav confirmed.

According to Yadav, earlier to the launch of this scheme, the Delhi Government was buying around 53000 kl of kerosene annually from the Central Government, to be given to eligible card holders and subsidised rates. This cost the Delhi Government, a whopping INR 200 crores and hence, this scheme aims to give a savings of this tune for the Delhi Government.

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