New Delhi: The government has launched Ujjwala Swabhiman Utsav, a programme where petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan and other Cabinet ministers will interact with about 6 crore households covered under the LPG Ujjwala scheme through video conferencing from Delhi. Pradhan and Union Women and Child Welfare Minister Maneka Gandhi have already interacted with around 50,000 beneficiaries of the scheme in 30 districts of Odisha in the first such programme last week.
The women covered under the scheme feel the scheme has helped them bring positive changes to their lives. Following this, the government plans to take the programme to the rest of India. First, Odisha will be covered and then Uttar Pradesh is likely to be reached.
While this scheme expects to improve the party's image among the poor ahead of this year's General Elections, Pradhan denied any political motive behind this.
"We never thought about Ujjwala as a political instrument," he said. "It is the first step towards empowerment and integration of the poor to the mainstream. When we came to power, there were 13 crores active LPG users. In the last five years, we have been able to double the number and out of which, six crore connections are under the scheme."