Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has said that ten thousand new LPG distributors will be appointed in the current financial year.Talking to reporters in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh, Mr Prdhan yesterday said at present, there are 18,000 gas distributors in the country. He said that 2,000 new distributors will added in the coming three months and by the end of this financial year 8,000 more distributors will be made. <br/><br/>Mr Pradhan said besides increasing production in refineries, the government is taking other steps to increase availability of LPG for consumers. The Minister is overseeing the preparations for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit on the 1st of May in Ballia to launch Ujjwala Yojana. This 8 thousand crore rupees ambitious scheme will provide five crore free LPG connections to the BPL families using the money saved from 1 crore and 13 lakhs cooking gas users voluntarily giving up their subsidies.<br/> <br/>Mr Pradhan said the objective of the scheme is to make every poor house hold free of smoke. He said 61 percent families in country are having LPG connection, while in Uttar Pradesh it is only 53 percent.

Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has said that ten thousand new LPG distributors will be appointed in the current financial year.Talking to reporters in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh, Mr Prdhan yesterday said at present, there are 18,000 gas distributors in the country. He said that 2,000 new distributors will added in the coming three months and by the end of this financial year 8,000 more distributors will be made. <br/><br/>Mr Pradhan said besides increasing production in refineries, the government is taking other steps to increase availability of LPG for consumers. The Minister is overseeing the preparations for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit on the 1st of May in Ballia to launch Ujjwala Yojana. This 8 thousand crore rupees ambitious scheme will provide five crore free LPG connections to the BPL families using the money saved from 1 crore and 13 lakhs cooking gas users voluntarily giving up their subsidies.<br/> <br/>Mr Pradhan said the objective of the scheme is to make every poor house hold free of smoke. He said 61 percent families in country are having LPG connection, while in Uttar Pradesh it is only 53 percent.