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NEW DELHI: Households with 'Ujjwala' LPG connection will get free refills till June, a move, which together with the provision of free foodgrains through ration shops, will put food on the 'thaali' ( plate ) in 8.3 crore poor households and help them tide over the lockdown.

Describing the package as "an example of responsive governance in challenging times," oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said it will "mitigate the economic impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on the rural and urban poor, farmers, health workers , migrant workers, senior citizens and other vulnerable sections of society".

Besides keeping the kitchen fire burning, the free cylinders will address the problem of low consumption by beneficiaries - mostly due to slow pace of behavioural and social change that hampers sustained usage of LPG for cooking. The Comptroller and Auditor General's report in December 2019 pegged the annual average refill consumption at 3.66 among beneficiaries who had completed a year till March 2018.

It said analysis for 3.18 crore PMUY beneficiaries as on December 31, 2018 showed that refill consumption declined to 3.21 refills a year.

