As part of its 100-day agenda, the Manmohan Singh government has decided to make LPG available in rural areas across the country.

To facilitate this, a scheme to appoint one LPG distributor for every 1,000 households in rural areas is being drawn up.

Public sector oil companies are soon going to advertise inviting applications for the Rural LPG Distributor Scheme, said Jitin Prasada, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas on Thursday. Prasada, who had stopped over in Lucknow on his way to his constituency Dhaurahra, said the initiative was part of the government’s commitment to aam admi.

There was no shortage of LGP and “it is the UPA government’s priority to ensure that LPG reaches the grassroot,” said the minister.

According to him, the details of the scheme was being chalked out. “We have decided to relax the rules and regulations for such distributors.” Since it may be difficult for many rural consumers to buy the regular LPG cylinders, “we are also mulling the idea of having 5 kg LPG cylinders.”

To make it affordable, the government is also thinking of reducing the security deposit for the regulator for rural areas, he said.

Talking about his priorities for the state, Prasada said: “Apart from implementation of the Rural LPG Distributor Scheme, we will also ensure that we have piped natural gas here.”

When told that a Pipeline Natural Gas (PNG) project had been languishing for long, Prasada said he will ensure that it takes off as soon as possible. He called for a report on the pending PNG project in Lucknow.

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