BHUBANESWAR: The Biju Mahila Janata Dal (BMJD), women wing of the ruling BJD on Monday termed the NDA government’s Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana ‘a failure’. The Centre provides free LPG connection to rural poor under the scheme.Addressing a news conference here at the party headquarters, BMJD president Minati Behera said though the Centre claims of 30.48 lakh beneficiaries under the scheme in Odisha, only 30 per cent people have opted for refilling the cylinders.Behera said the perception created by the BJP in media over huge success of the scheme is misleading and to deceive the people.“I urged Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan to issue a white paper stating details about number of beneficiaries under the scheme in Odisha and details of those who have opted for refilling,” Behera said.The scheme implemented by the ministry of petroleum and natural gas aims at providing clean-cooking fuel to the poor households which are otherwise vulnerable to various health hazards. The Centre has so far covered 5 crore beneficiaries under the scheme that was launched in May 2016.Behera said the scheme has failed as the beneficiaries were asked to take refill of LPG cylinder on market price which is very high while there was inordinate delay in releasing subsidy to the account of beneficiaries. She also questioned selection process of beneficiaries under the scheme.She also blamed the Centre for not strengthening infrastructures like enhancing banking networks and strengthening telecommunication. “Poor internet connection and banking network is also another reasons behind failure of the scheme as beneficiaries have to struggle to get subsidy amount. The BJD demanded the Centre to strengthen the banking network before launching the scheme,” she said.The BMJD took to streets in October alleging large scale irregularities in implementation of the scheme.Refuting the charges, Lekhashri Samantasinghar said the BJD’s charges are baseless. “The beneficiaries were selected on the basis of socio economic caste census prepared by the state government in 2011,” she said.On allegations regarding poor refilling status, Lekhashri said government has admitted that 71 per cent people benefited under the scheme.

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