Summary:
Inability to access benefits made available to Below Poverty Line (BPL) families, affordability of LPG gas cylinders, and irregular payment of LPG subsidies are some of the troubles faced by tribal families that got access to the Centre’s Ujjwala yojana. It should be noted that under the scheme the government provides the first LPG cylinder free to the beneficiary. A survey carried out by Disha, an NGO that works with tribals found that of 1080 BPL families that had been surveyed, 88% found themselves being converted as Above Poverty Line (APL) families in government records. But since the BPL families get categorised as APL families after accessing the scheme, their access to subsidised kerosene which was the fuel they used earlier also gets affected. “Even though the first cylinder is free, the families are too poor to buy the subsequent cylinders..