LPG not just gas, its catalyst for social change: Pradhan

Bhubaneswar, Sep 1 (PTI) Terming LPG a catalyst for socialchange, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan today said theCentre is striving to make cooking gas accessible to thepoorest of the poor in the country and make villagespollution-free. The cooking gas is now being seen as a catalyst for socialchange and not merely as a source of profit, the Ministersaid adding that it can help poor villagers with clean andgreen energy. He was speaking at an International Conference ‘LPG -Catalyst of Social Change’ here. Highlighting various initiatives taken by Narendra Modigovernment including LPG to every household in rural India,which suffering from air pollution, the Minister said only 74million people are now using around 24 million MT of LPGthrough a network of 18,000 distributors across the country. He also praised the oil PSUs and all stakeholders fortaking effective steps for making LPG affordable andaccessible to the poor. Pradhan expressed confidence that the two-day conferencewill provide necessary roadmap to learn and adopt the bestpractices from across the globe. Jharkhand Governor Droupadi Murmu who inaugurated theconference lauded the effort being made by the Centre toensure LPG to poorest of poor in rural areas and alsorecounted her own experience as a village dweller with noaccess to cooking gas. Stressing that the present intervention in LPG sector willresult in significant improvement in convenience of women,Murmu voiced confidence that the international meet willprovide a suitable platform to improve the LPG distributornetwork. Lakshmi Puri, UN Assistant Secretary General and DeputyExecutive Director UN Women, spoke on the vision of the UnitedNations to provide clean and green sustainable energy toeveryone. She appreciated the efforts made by India to ensureenergy access to most vulnerable society of villages whichwill impact the lives of women and girls living in villages.PTI SKN SUSABI