Chandigarh becomes first kerosene-free city

New Delhi: For the first time, a city has been declared kerosene free with sale of subsidised cooking and lighting fuel being stopped in Chandigarh from Friday completely.

Households have been shifted to LPG to help declare Chandigarh kerosene free. "Thus, no further distribution of subsidised kerosene will be done in Chandigarh from the month of April, 2016 onwards," the Petroleum Ministry said in a statement.

The Petroleum Ministry with the help of Chandigarh Administration has been working for the last few months to make Chandigarh 'a Kerosene Free City'. The Ministry "decided to facilitate the households presently using kerosene oil by facilitating switchover to LPG," it said.

To facilitate the kerosene beneficiaries getting LPG connections, enrolment camps were organised by state-owned fuel retailers to provide hassle-free LPG connections. Also, deposit-free LPG connections were provided to BPL households and interest free loan scheme was launched for APL households.

"During this campaign, a total of 15,249 LPG connections were provided in Chandigarh city, including 1574 for BPL households," the statement said.