Two tribal villages in Odisha set to be declared 'smokeless'
In a major step towards development, two tribal villages of Koraput district, Odisha, will get the smokeless tag on May 5. 403 houses of Khudubu village under Nandaput block and 323 houses of Jhadiguda in Koraput block, switched to LPG under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY). The remaining houses (almost 5%) are expected to switch to LPG, leaving conventional cooking methods, by this week.
"Initially, the villagers didn't co-operate with the officials. However, when they had been made aware about the health hazards resulting from indoor air pollution created by traditional fuel, they agreed to opt for the LPG," said nodal officer Prasanna Kumar Pradhan.
Further, in a bid to popularize the use of LPG in the tribal-dominated area, Ujjwala Diwas will be celebrated across the district on April 20 For this, 18 LPG Panchayats across 14 blocks will be created. 500 women in each panchayat are expected to join the event where they'll be taught the benefits of LPG. Fellow women who have benefited from LPG will explain the privileges to them.
Ahead of the Ujjwala Diwas, there has been a sudden surge in applicants for PMUY. Till April 1, 2018, approximately 30,000-40,000 people applied per day. However, the applications spiked to as much as 1.27 lakh applicants on April 10 and 1.55 lakh on April 13. Rs. 8,000 crore was allocated to PMUY, aimed at providing clean fuel to 5 crore women of BPL households.
