New Delhi: Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan Thursday said that the consumer base of LPG connection has increased to 26 crore in the country.
Pradhan said that when the NDA came to power at the Centre in 2014 the LPG consumer base was 13 crore but the present government has given numerous connections during the last five years. He further said that 6.75 crore people have received LPG connection under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana.
The Union Minister Thursday rolled out the allotment of new retail outlets (RO) of Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) by handing over the Letters of Intent (LoI) to a number of applicants at a function at the Constitution Club here.
He also issued the intimation online by click of button, to over 2,500 successful candidates who can now collect their LoI from the OMC offices.
At the same time, such letters of intent were also issued at 12 other places, including Bhubaneswar, in the country. A letter of intent was handed over to Pradeep Kumar in Bhubaneswar.
According to the Petroleum Ministry, the Public Sector OMCs had advertised for 78,493 locations to set up retail outlets across 35 States/ Union Territories, for which more than 4 lakh applications were received.
Pradhan slams BJD MLA
Pradhan also criticised Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MLA from Cuttack, Debashish Samantaray, for misbehaving with a relative of a martyr of the recent Pulawama terror attack.
Talking to media here, Pradhan said, “It’s condemning. The entire country is standing with the martyrs’ families. The Chief Minister of Odisha must respond against such act.”
Notably, a video of Samantaray allegedly misbehaving with the uncle of martyred CRPF personnel from Odisha, Manoj Behera, during his cremation at Ratanpur village near Niali went viral in the social media.