There were 280 million domestic Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) consumers in India as of February 1, 2021, Dharmendra Pradhan, Union minister of petroleum and natural gas told the Rajya Sabha March 10, 2021.
There were 0.7 million domestic consumers in India, using Piped Natural Gas, Pradhan added.
The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) was started by the Centre in 2016 to provide clean cooking fuel to poor households. Its target to provide eight crore deposit- free LPG connections had already been achieved in September, 2019, Pradhan said.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced February 1 to provide one crore more LPG connections under PMUY.
Baghjan blowout
Various agencies had been engaged to study and assess the ecological damage due to the blowout and fire at the Baghjan oilfield in Tinsukia district of Assam, Dharmendra Pradhan told the Rajya Sabha.
A study by the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati concluded that there was no significant effect of the fire on the formation of cracks in the houses. However, there was damage to nearby houses and crops. Oil India Ltd (OIL) had provided relief / compensation to affected families.
The blowout occurred May 27, 2020 at one of the wells of OIL located at Baghjan. The well caught fire May 9, 2020. The fire was controlled November 15, 2020, Pradhan said.
Ratnagiri mega refinery
The Government of Maharashtra, vide a notification dated March 2, 2019, had withdrawn the earlier notification dated May 18, 2017, for the acquisition of land for the refinery-cum-petrochemical project at Babulwadi in Rajapur taluka of Ratnagiri district in the state, Dharmendra Pradhan told the Rajya Sabha.
Pradhan added that Ratnagiri Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd had conducted awareness campaigns through print and electronic media as well as door-to-door campaigns to impress upon the local population, the benefits of the project and to dispel misconceptions about the supposed adverse environmental impact that could be caused by setting up the refinery.
Nomadic tribes
Shepherds and nomadic tribes were migrating for their livelihood, which was affecting the health and education of their family and children, Krishan Pal Gurjar, minster of state for social justice and empowerment, told the Rajya Sabha.
The Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, vide a gazette notification dated February 21, 2019, had constituted a development and welfare board for denotified, nomadic and semi-nomadic communities for a period of three years, extendable upto five years.
Urban floods
Hardeep Singh Puri, minister of state (independent charge) of the ministry of housing and urban affairs, denied in the Rajya Sabha that the government had set up a panel to study disasters like the urban floods during the last three years.
Puri said an expert group was constituted by the National Disaster Management Authority in 2016 to prepare a road-map for combating the emergent threats of flooding in urban areas.
Beedi workers
There were 49,82,294 registered beedi workers in India as on date, Santosh Kumar Gangwar, minister of state (independent charge) for labour and employment told the Rajya Sabha.
Some 35,25,662 among them were women. No children were engaged in beedi making, Gangwar said.
The number of women employed in beedi making was the highest in Kolkata, according to the data presented in the House.