For Migrant Workers, Getting Cooking Gas Connection Simplified: PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today declared that migrants will not be required to submit ration cards or address proof to get cooking gas where they are working. A self-declaration as a "proof of address'' will suffice, he said at the launch the Ujjwala 2.0 scheme for free cooking gas from Uttar Pradesh, where assembly polls are due next year. The politically crucial state -- seen as the gateway to Delhi -- is set to have its assembly polls next year, in which the Yogi Adityanath government is seeking a second term.

"Many of our comrades from all over Uttar Pradesh and other states including Bundelkhand, go from village to city to work, go to other states. But there they face the problem of proof of address. Ujjwala 2.0 scheme will give maximum relief to lakhs of such families," PM Modi said.

"Now my labourer colleagues do not have to wander here and there for proof of address. The government has full faith in your honesty… All you have to do is give a self-declaration of your address, that is, by writing yourself and you will get a gas connection," he added.

Uttar Pradesh, along with Bihar, supplies the bulk of migrant labourers who work at factories and construction sites across the country and the problems they face were hugely highlighted during last year's countrywide lockdown after the Covid outbreak.

Ujjwala Yojana has "improved the lives of women around the country in an unprecedented way," the Prime Minister said.

"The Ujjwala scheme has given wings to women empowerment in a big way. We have given free gas connections to 8 crore poor households.

How much this has benefitted we have seen this during the Covid pandemic. Imagine what would have happened if there was no Ujjwala. We distributed free cylinders during that time," PM Modi said.