Shillong, July 12: Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas & Labour and Employment Rameswar Teli on Tuesday distributed free Ujjwala 2.0 LPG Connections, E-Shram and PM-SYM cards, PPO and cheques of EDLI schemes EPFO and ESIC cards under PRAYAS to the beneficiaries of Meghalaya at a programme held at the Shillong Club here.

A total of ten beneficiaries from the East Khasi Hills district received free LPG connections. The Minister informed that 62 per cent target of the Ujjwala scheme has been achieved in the state of Meghalaya and requested the state government to put all efforts so that 100 per cent target could be achieved soon.

Eleven beneficiaries were provided with Pension Payment Order (PPO) as part of the PRAYAS initiative for Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav 2022. Under Employees’ Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme, 1976 (EDLI), a beneficiary received a cheque of Rs 7 lakh for five members of Rs 1.4 lakh each. Ten beneficiaries were given E-Shram cards while PM-SYM benefits were distributed among five beneficiaries.

The Minister while referring to the Ujjawal Yojana said the number of people, especially women whose lives are illuminated by the Ujjwala Yojana is unprecedented. “A few years ago the rural and poor households were compelled to use traditional cooking fuel such as firewood, stoves run on kerosene, coal, cow-dung cakes etc,” said the Minister citing the detrimental impact on the health of rural women and children as well as on the environment.

Under the able leadership of Prime Minster Narendra Modi, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, was successful in introducing the ‘Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana’ (PMUY) as a flagship scheme with an objective to provide clean cooking fuel such as LPG available to deprived households. So far, more than 9 crore women have been provided with free LPG connection, the Minister added.

“Seva, Sushasan and Garib Kalyan have been the major focus of Government under Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi over past 8 years and India has witnessed a paradigm shift towards people-centric governance. Landmark policies and initiatives have been implemented across sectors to improve last mile delivery of benefits and enhance development outcomes across the country,” said the Minister

He added that the policies have focused on improving infrastructure, ramping up healthcare facilities, ensuring farmers’ welfare and protecting the marginalized. “Further, India has witnessed unprecedented strides in youth-led and technology-led development. It has also seen various reforms aimed at enhancing ease of doing business in the country. Additionally, women-centric policies have played a major role in promoting participation of women in different sectors,” stated the Minister.

He highlighted the Centre’s focus on exploration and production of oil and natural gas that is aimed at making India a self-reliant country in energy requirement, and said that the work on meeting the target of 10 per cent ethanol blending in petrol is on track.

The 10 per cent blending under Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme has been achieved much ahead of the targeted timelines of November, 2022, the Minister informed.  He said, “Augmenting ethanol blending in fuel is critical for the energy security of the country and it will help in reducing import of fuels. This will not only help in cutting the hefty oil import bill but will also encourage farmers to come forward to contribute in the supply of ethanol, thereby helping in increasing their incomes”.

The Minister also said that exploration for oil and natural gas will soon start in Meghalaya besides other states of the North East. Teli informed the gathering that gas pipelines would be laid across all the Northeastern states. He said the project to lay the gas pipeline would be executed by Indradhanush Gas Grid Ltd and work will start very soon. Under this project Meghalaya too is included and this pipeline will extend till Shillong, the work for which will begin very soon.

The Minister also discussed the initiatives of the Labour and Employment Ministry to bring in transparency and accountability through reforms and enforcement of Labour Laws. “Apart from providing the necessary skills and information for setting up a new startup, regular financial assistance has been provided to establishments and workers to help them in endeavours.  EPFO has been providing their services online for the benefit of the subscribers and there has been quick settlement of claims in the recent years. The Prayaas scheme is an endeavour of the EPFO to release the employee’s pension amount, i.e. PF (Provident Fund) amount, on the day of his/her superannuation. Aatmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana is being implemented by the government through EPFO to incentivize employers of organized sector and for creation of new employment and till date around 60 lakh beneficiaries have been benefited amounting almost Rs 5500 crore,” he stated while addressing the program today.

Services under the Employees’ State Insurance Scheme of India (ESIC) have been modernized and will be extended to every part of India, he said. ESIC will also augment its infrastructure by setting-up new hospitals and upgrading existing ones. The Minister also gave an insight on the status of E-Shram. “For the first time in the country, the government, through e-Shram portal, has been preparing a National Database of workers under the unorganized sector. The portal will maintain a database of workers in the country’s unorganised sector. E-Shram Portal- National Database on unorganised workers is being created to facilitate better implementation of various social security schemes for nearly 38 crore workers. Till date 28 crore workers have registered themselves in this portal.” In Meghalaya two lakh workers have registered themselves under the E-Shram portal out of the target of nine lakh, he informed and exhorted everyone to encourage the workers of the unorganized sector to enroll themselves in the portal to get the benefits of the government schemes.

The Minister also mentioned PM-SYM (Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-Dhan) that is being introduced for old age protection and social security of unorganised workers. Under the scheme unorganized workers (UW) aged between 18 years to 40 years can get enrolled and receive an amount of Rs 3000 after attaining the age of 60 years. The Minister requested everyone to popularize the scheme and mobilize the target groups and eligible workers for enrolment under the scheme. He said the central government has also taken several initiatives to increase the enrolment under PM-SYM Scheme.

Later in the day,  Rameswar Teli also took a review meeting of officials of the various departments of the state government where he took stock of the implementation of various centrally sponsored schemes.