As a Dussera gift, the State Government has decided to increase the subsidy from six to nine gas cylinders in a year to the beneficiaries of Deepam scheme.
Making the announcement at his chambers in D-Block of the State Secretariat here on Tuesday, Sridhar Babu said that instead of six, about 40 lakh beneficiaries of Deepam Scheme, would get subsidy on nine cylinders. He said this has been done on the instructions of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
The minister said that the average usage of gas in the State was 5.5 cylinders per family as against the national average of 5.2 cylinders. Stating that about 40 lakh families in the State would benefit from the move, he said that the State Government’s decision would remove the impact that these families would have had after the subsidy was limited to six cylinders. He said this would put an additional burden on the State’s exchequer by Rs 634 crore.
Sridhar Babu also informed that the works on providing gas through pipeline in two localities of Kukatpally was on.
The minister also announced that a 15-day special drive would be taken up to week out bogus ration cards in the State. Estimating that nearly six lakh bogus cards could be in existence, the minister appealed to the people to surrender the bogus cards on their own. If they fails to do so, then the authorities would take legal action against the card holders. He also warned of stern action if dealers were found involved in the bogus ration card irregularities.
–Agencies