No more LPG subsidy to households, Rs 200 dole only to Ujjwala beneficiaries

News Network
June 2, 2022

New Delhi, June 2: The government has limited subsidy on cooking gas LPG for only 9 crore poor women and other beneficiaries who got free connections under the Ujjwala scheme and the remaining users including households will pay the market price.

Oil Secretary Pankaj Jain at a news briefing said no subsidy is paid on cooking gas since June 2020 and the only subsidy that is provided is the one that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on March 21.

"There was no subsidy for LPG users since the early days of Covid. Since then the only subsidy is one which had been introduced now for Ujjwala beneficiaries," he said.

Sitharaman had while announcing a cut in excise duty on petrol by a record Rs 8 per litre and that on diesel by Rs 6, stated that Ujjwala scheme beneficiaries will get Rs 200 per cylinder subsidy for 12 bottles in a year to help ease some of the burden arising from cooking gas rates rising to record levels.

A 14.2-kg LPG cylinder costs Rs 1,003 in the national capital. Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana beneficiaries will get Rs 200 subsidy directly in their bank account and the effective price for them would be Rs 803 per 14.2-kg cylinder.

For the rest, it will cost Rs 1,003 in Delhi.

The Rs 200 subsidy will cost the government Rs 6,100 crore, she had said.

"Subsidies by definition are not designed to get entrenched and increased. Subsidies by definition have to be degressive," Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said at the same conference.

The government ended subsidies on petrol in June 2010 and on diesel in November 2014. The same on kerosene ended a couple of years later. And now subsidies on LPG for most have effectively been ended. However, unlike petrol, diesel and kerosene, there is no formal order ending the subsidies.

The country has nearly 30.5 crore LPG connections. Of this, 9 crore have been provided under PM Ujjwala Yojana.

On prices, Puri said the rates of "LPG for domestic consumers have gone up by just 7 per cent in last 6 months whereas the Saudi CP (the benchmark used to price LPG) has gone up by 43 per cent. This is the reality."

Non-subsidised or market priced LPG, which most users other than Ujjwala pay, have gone up by Rs 103.50 per 14.2-kg cylinder since October 2021 and by almost Rs 200 in one year.

A 14.2-kg LPG cylinder was priced at Rs 809 in June 2021. Its prices were raised by about Rs 90 in the next four months.

Prices were hiked by Rs 50 per cylinder in March and then again in May, rates went up by Rs 3.50.

"We have been, thanks to sound policies, insulating our users from the tremors in the international market and the turmoil," Puri said referring to the rise in rates in Saudi CP and the ones in India.

He also refuted reports of a drop in the purchase of refills by Ujjwala beneficiaries once they exhaust their first cylinder post getting free connections. This was attributed to the high prices of LPG.

"It is completely untrue," he said.

Users taking only one refill has come down from 181 crore during 2019-20 to 1.08 crore in 2021-22 and a majority of customers have taken more than one refill.

Also, the per capita consumption of Ujjwala users has increased from 3.01 to 3.68 cylinders during 2021-22. 

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News Network
September 14,2024

Bengaluru: Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara on Saturday said the situation in violence-hit Nagamangala town in Mandya district is peaceful now, and steps have been taken to ensure that no untoward incidents take place.

Clashes had broken out between two groups during the Ganesh idol procession in the town, following which mobs went on a rampage with stone pelting and targeting several shops and vehicles leading to tension on Wednesday night.

"Situation in Nagamangala is now peaceful and there is no problem there. I have also instructed officials to hold a peace meeting there. We have instructed officers to ensure that no untoward incidents take place, enough police force is also stationed there," Parameshwara told reporters here.

About 55 people have been arrested in connection with the incident and they have been sent to judicial custody, according to police sources.

Responding to a question on opposition parties including JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy raising doubts about the FIR, he said, "The police will do what has to be done in accordance with law..."

Asked about BJP sending a fact finding team to Nagamangala, the Home Minister said, "Let them find the facts and inform us, and if there is any fact from their fact finding, we will look into it. It will make our work a bit easier." The BJP panel consisting of MLA C N Ashwath Narayan, former Minister Byrathi Basavaraj, former Minister K C Narayana Gowda, state secretary Lakshmi Ashwin Gowda, and former IPS officer Bhaskar Rao, will visit the spot and submit a comprehensive report to the party in a week.

According to police, an argument had broken out between two groups, when the Ganesh idol procession by devotees from Badri Koppalu village reached a place of worship on Wednesday, and some miscreants hurled stones, which escalated the situation.

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News Network
September 9,2024

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New Delhi: A man who recently travelled from a country experiencing mpox transmission has tested positive for the disease, the Union Health Ministry said on Monday.

"The previously suspected case of mpox has been verified as a travel-related infection. Laboratory testing has confirmed the presence of mpox virus of the West African clade-2 in the patient," it said.

The ministry said that it is an isolated case, similar to the earlier 30 cases reported in India from July 2022 onwards. It is not a part of the current public health emergency reported by WHO which is regarding clade 1 of mpox, it underlined.

"The individual, a young male who recently travelled from a country experiencing ongoing mpox transmission, is currently isolated at a designated tertiary care isolation facility. The patient remains clinically stable and is without any systemic illness or comorbidities," the ministry said.

The case aligns with earlier risk assessments and continues to be managed according to established protocols, it said, adding that public health measures, including contact tracing and monitoring, are actively in place to ensure the situation is contained.

"There is no indication of any widespread risk to the public at this time," the health ministry stated.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) last month declared mpox a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) for the second time in view of its prevalence and spread across many parts of Africa.

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News Network
September 10,2024

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The Israeli regime has attacked displaced Palestinians in the southern part of the Gaza Strip with US-provided 2,000-pound bombs, killing at least 40 civilians, mostly women and children.

As many as 60 others were injured in the attack that targeted an area previously declared by the Israeli military as a “humanitarian zone” at the al-Mawasi refugee camp in the city of Khan Younis on Tuesday.

The military alleged that it had struck members of the Hamas resistance movement, who were “operating a command and control center” inside the targeted area, a claim that was rejected by the group as a “blatant lie.”

“The resistance has repeatedly confirmed the absence of any of its members among civilian gatherings or the use of such areas for military purposes,” Hamas said.

The bloodletting took place as part of the regime’s ongoing genocidal war on Gaza, which began on October 7 in response to a retaliatory operation staged by the territory’s resistance groups.

So far, close to 41,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 94,800 others wounded in the brutal military onslaught.

The Tuesday massacre came after the refugee camp witnessed an influx of homeless Palestinians, who had fled there from the death and destruction spree caused by the war elsewhere across the coastal sliver. Between 30,000 and 34,000 people were living upon each square kilometer of the camp at the time of the attack, the United Nations estimates show.

The weapons deployed during the massacre have been identified as American-made MK-84 bombs, which carry 900 pounds of explosives. 

The payload can create a crater about 15 meters wide and over 10 meters deep, besides being capable of causing deadly damage around it within a radius of approximately 73 meters. 

This is not the first time when the regime deploys the ammunition against civilian targets during the war. 

More than 70 Palestinians were killed after it struck the refugee camp with the same bombs in July.

As part of its unbridled military support for the regime, the United States has armed it with as many as 14,000 of the bombs since the onset of the war.

Hamas also called the US “complicit” in such massacres that “are being deliberately carried out without regard for international law, humanitarian law, or resolutions calling for an end to the aggression.”

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