Addressing the issue of inflation ahead of the assembly election next year, the Rajasthan government has decided to provide 12 gas cylinders at Rs 500 each to BPL families in a year.
Speaking at a Bharat Jodo Yatra public meeting in Alwar, where he shared the stage with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot said: “The price rise is serious. We will give 12 gas cylinders in a year at Rs 500 each to BPL families after April 1 next year. No one should be deprived of the benefits of government welfare schemes.”
He also took a dig at the Centre, saying that the Union government had started the Ujwala scheme to provide cylinders, but the poor can’t afford to fill them up with gas. NDTV quoted Gehlot as saying: "I'm prepping for the budget next month... Right now, I want to say only one thing. Under the Ujjwala Scheme, Prime Minister Narendra Modi provided the poor with LPG connections... But the cylinder remains empty, because the (cylinder) rates are now between Rs 400 and Rs 1,040,"
As of December 2022, the price of domestic cooking gas in Rajasathan is over Rs 1,000 per LPG cylinder.
Rahul Gandhi also trained his guns at the Centre, accusing it of wanting to keep the lower strata underdeveloped. He said that the saffron party did not want the children on farmers and labourers to learn English and progress with the world.
“BJP leaders don't want English to be taught in schools. But children of all their leaders go to English-medium schools. Actually, they don't want children of poor farmers and labourers to learn English, dream big and get out of fields,” the Congress MP said.
Gandhi added: “If you want to speak to people of rest of the world, Hindi will not work; English will. We want children of poor farmers and labourers to compete with Americans and win over them using their language. I'm happy that 1,700 English-medium schools have been opened in Rajasthan.”