14 cr of 24 cr U.P residents getting free ration, U.P. govt tells House
Replying to a question by SP leaders RK Verma and Sangram Yadav, state’s labour minister Anil Rajbhar said that the unemployment rate has come down in U.P.
LUCKNOW As many as 14 crore state residents out of the total 24 crore are getting free ration, the Uttar Pradesh government told the House during the ongoing Budget session of the state assembly on Friday. Along with this, the government also put out hard data to highlight the number of beneficiaries of the several state and Centre-run welfare schemes in response to the questions posed by non-BJP MLAs.
For instance, Laxmi Narayan Chaudhary, minister for sugarcane development, told the House that the state provided more than 1.75 crore free LPG connections under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana till February 13. He added that a financial assistance of ₹235.39 per LPG cylinder is also being provided as refill subsidy to the beneficiaries under the scheme.
The minister was responding to a supplementary question posed by Samajwadi Party MLA Dr Ragini Sonkar, who also asked if there is any provision to provide free gas cylinder refills to widows. Sonkar pointed out the ₹1,000 per month aid given to them is exhausted in refilling the gas cylinder itself. To this, Chaudhary maintained that the government is not aware of any problems being faced by people in refilling LPG cylinders.
‘Unemployment rate has come down’
Replying to a question by SP leaders RK Verma and Sangram Yadav, state’s labour minister Anil Rajbhar said that the unemployment rate has come down in U.P. and is less than the national average. He also mentioned that 1,72,291 registered job seekers were provided with an employment opportunity through job fairs organised between April 1, 2022, and January 31, 2023.
On ration cards
Laxmi Narain Chaudhary informed the House that the state government is following the National Food Security Act of 2015, which states that not more than 79.56% of the rural population and 64.43% of the urban population should be issued ration cards. He, however, added that the state is consistently issuing new ration cards to cover all the needy.
The minister was answering a question put forth by Samajwadi Party’s Abhay Singh. Meanwhile, assembly Speaker Satish Mahana asked the state government to conduct a probe into fake ration cards. To this, Chaudhary said that probe is conducted whenever such a complaint is received from anywhere in the state.
‘Decision on minimum wages soon’
In response to a question posed by Rashtriya Lok Dal’s Ajay Kumar, Anil Rajbhar said that the state government would soon set up a board to make recommendations about the minimum wages. The RLD member had asked the government if there was any proposal to review minimum wages in view of the rising inflation.
Meanwhile, responding to a question on women employment by SP’s Pooja Pal, Rajbhar said that 42,279 women registered on the government portal have been provided jobs since 2017.
Inspection of petrol pumps
SP MLA Fahim Irfan raised the issue of irregularities at petrol pumps in the state and asked if the government is taking any action in this regard. Responding to the query, Chaudhary told the House that 35% of the 9,720 petrol pumps in the state have been inspected to check for any mal-practice. He added that officials found irregularities at 142 petrol pumps. Among them 52 have been served with a challan. Also, an FIR has been lodged against two people in this connection.