Deep inside Gadchiroli, a tale of two gas schemes

While the Centre's Ujjwala Yojana is not much of a success in the backward areas, the state programme has found many takers

Prime minister's dream project, Ujjwala Yojana, through which cooking gas connections were made available to people living below the poverty line, has not made any difference to villagers in Gadchiroli. They simply cannot afford a refill , which comes at a hefty Rs 900 a cylinder.

Initially, those who benefitted under the scheme, included tribal villagers from Gattepayali village, located 29-30 kilometres from Gadchiroli district, where the scheme was introduced a year ago. Most of them got the cooking gas connection at Rs 200. There are 80-odd houses in this village, with a population of over 500. However, most villagers were forced to switch back to firewood for cooking, as they could not afford to refill their cylinders with LPG by paying around Rs 900. They had got the connections for Rs 200 initially.

mid-day, in the past few days, has been highlighting the plight of the local tribals in this village, who are struggling for basic amenities. Most cannot afford to pay the inflated electricity bills they received and have been staying in the dark. With no political candidates visiting their village, their pleas like those of others living in deep forest areas, go unheard.

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Gopal Madavi's daughter-in-law has gone back to cooking with firewood. Pic/Suresh Karkera

Back to firewood

Gopala Madavi, 90, one of the oldest members in the village, in whose name the gas connection was provided, could use it for only one month and then switched back to firewood.

Amol, his grandson, said, "We got the cylinder ourselves in an auto from Gadchiroli, no mechanic came to install it. We did so with the help of a villager. We have no income and cannot afford to pay R900 to refill the cylinder."

Villagers echoed the feeling that they were ignored by the government. "We have not got any government facilities, nor have the local political candidates visited us. Yours is the first newspaper which has visited our village so far," said many of the villagers.

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Villagers cannot afford LPG

Shivaji Dugga, another villager, said, "I do not have any proof of residence, after I lost the ration card. So we continue to cook with wood. The situation is the same in nearly half the houses. We have no source of income, people usually do farming for self-consumption. Very few sell paddy."

"We end up paying nearly Rs 200 for transport to Gadchiroli and if the agency does not have a cylinder full of gas, we have to come back empty handed. This is a waste of money so we decided not to go for the cooking gas connection," said another villager, Sanjay Kulmathe.

The district administration officials admit that there are many remote villages where cooking gas has not reached, especially in villages touching the border areas of Telangana and Chhattisgarh. An official from the state administration said, "Under the Ujwala Yojana as of December 10, 2018, 34.18 lakh people living BPL benefitted. But the connection is provided under a subsidised rate and no other subsidy is provided for refilling of cylinders."

State has successful scheme

Interestingly, the Maharashtra government in 2017 introduced the Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Jan-Van Vikas Yojana under which LPG gas connection was offered to the people living in forest areas, to encourage them to protect the forests by not cutting trees for cooking.

In this scheme, 1/4th contribution towards the cooking gas stove, cylinder, deposit and connection, approximately Rs 1,925, has to be made by the villager, and remaining Rs 5,775 is paid by the government. Two LPG cylinders are provided with a new connection and six other cylinders (refill) are given within the first and second year, with 75 per cent subsidy by the government.

A senior forest officer at Chandrapur where this scheme is implemented successfully, said, "There are 4,000 gas connections in deep forest areas, excluding few pockets like Melghat in Chandrapur. We have extended the scheme by taking a liberal stand for villages which do not have a Joint Forest Management Committee (JFMC). We have asked agencies to ensure that the cylinder is delivered to the door step of the villagers."

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