Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched three schemes for Haryana, declared seven rural districts of the state Open-Defecation Free (ODF), eight districts “kerosene-free” and released the state's commemorative postage stamp at the Haryana Swarna Jayanti inauguration ceremony in Gurugram on November 1.
One of the introduced schemes, the "Deen Dayal Jan Awas Yojana", has been designed to put a check on development of unauthorised colonies. It also aims to achieve the target of "Housing For All-2022" at reasonable rates in small and medium potential towns. The scheme will provide small plots to accommodate maximum number of people in the medium and low potential towns of the state.
The second scheme, Automation of the Fair Price Shops (FPS), involves provisioning of Point of Sale (POS) devices in every fair-price shop. These devices will ensure Aadhaar-based biometric tracking of the beneficiaries and of online transactions of food grains and other commodities.
With coverage of the remaining six lakh families out of the 11.05 lakh BPL families under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjawala Yojna (PMUY), Haryana is well on its way to becoming kerosene-free and shall possibly be the first state to achieve this distinction. Five lakh families have already been provided LPG connections under the scheme. Haryana has set the target to become kerosene free by March 31 next year.
On this occasion, PM Modi also declared eight of the state's districts - namely Ambala, Gurugram, Jhajjar, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Panipat, Panchkula and Yamuna Nagar “kerosene-free” from November 1. He also praised the efforts being made to phase out use of kerosene stoves in the state's rural areas. "I will ensure you get back whatever money you think you save by using kerosene. Please stop using kerosene," the PM appealed.
He concluded by addressing the state's gravest problem - female foeticide. “The daughters of Haryana have brought laurels and pride to this country on multiple occasions. Let every citizen of Haryana pledge to protect the girl child," he said, lauding the steps taken by the Haryana government to prevent female foeticide.
