STATE TIMES NEWS
NEW DELHI: Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan has assured the J and K Government that work on Bathinda -Jammu-Srinagar Gas Pipeline will be expedited. The assurance was given to Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Chowdhary, Zulfkar Ali who called on him here on Thursday.
Chowdhary Zulfkar described the Project as prestigious for J and K State and demanded that the work on it should be expedited to make possible round the clock LPG supply to Jammu and Kashmir which faces shortage of cooking gas especially in winters due to closure of Jammu- Srinagar National Highway. Setting target of providing one lakh free LPG connections in first phase to the BPL women of J and K State in last week of September, the Union Petroleum Minister assured that they will also try to include leftout families on the basis of socio economic survey and special dispensation will be given to Jammu and Kashmir.
The Union Minister further assured that J and K along with HP, Uttarakhand and North Eastern states will be exempted from National criteria and will be given priority for 100 per cent gas penetration within a period of one year. Demanding declaration of Srinagar and Jammu as CNG cities, Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali said that in view of continuous increase in air pollution due to vehicles and industrial sources, corrective measures need to be taken to check the air pollution. Responding to the demand the Union Minister assured that the Centre will declare Srinagar as CNG city soon and measures will be taken to decrease air pollution level in Jammu also.
On the demand of providing sufficient quota of K-Oil, Dharmendra assured that Centre will provide adequate quota of K Oil to J and K.
The minister also demanded shifting of oil depots of Leh and Jammu from city areas on which Dharmendra said that they will shift both these Depots subject to availability of land in outer areas.
