Warrior Moms send a letter with the demand, endorsed by prominent personalities to the Finance Minister on Wednesday.
New Delhi :-Several prominent personalities have endorsed a letter demanding provisions in the Union budget 2023-24 to make Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) affordable to poor households across India. The letter was sent to Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Finance on Wednesday by Warrior Moms, and is endorsed by over twenty noted personalities including MPs and social activists. Warrior Moms is a nationwide mother’s network for clean air.
“The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojna (PMUY) introduced in 2016 has given over 8 crore households access to subsidised LPG connections. However, the insufficiency of the subsidy combined with the difficulty of getting a timely refill hinders millions of households from switching to LPG…unable to afford cylinders now priced at over INR 1,000 on an average, underprivileged households continue to depend on unclean fuels like firewood and dung cakes, resulting in serious health implications (still-births, asthma, bronchitis, COPD, growth stagnation, decrease in life expectancy, high infant mortality rates)…it is imperative to provide all our underprivileged constituents with heavily subsidised cooking cylinders and refills (targeted subsidies, based on household income),” states the letter. 
The endorsers include noted MPs such as Shashi Tharoor, Farooq Abdullah, Varun Gandhi and Maneka Gandhi among others. It also includes senior advocate Justice Anjana Prakash and social activist Aruna Roy. “It is disturbing to see the obstacles that women in urban-poor and rural households face due to the exorbitantly priced LPG refills across India. Continued usage of such fuels also has disastrous consequences on their health and wellbeing. We urge the Government of India to take this into account and raise the subsidy amount well beyond the current extension of Rs. 200, along with making the distribution of LPG smoother across the country,” said Warrior Moms in their official statement.
Over the last year, the Warrior Moms network has engaged in surveys, studies and awareness videos on the issue of air pollution and have submitted 5,000 postcards to Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Puri, from mothers across the country covering geographies such as Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Chennai and Delhi NCR among others. The postcards urged the government to address the issue of household air pollution by ensuring access and affordability to LPG for all poor households.
Household Air Pollution contributes to 30-50% of the ambient air quality in India. Over 40% households in India still don’t have access to clean cooking fuel despite close to universal coverage of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY).
A complete list of personalities endorsing the letter can be found below:
Justice Anjana Prakash. Supreme Court of India.Aruna Roy, Founder MKSS.
MP Chandra P Choudhury, AJSU Party, Jharkhand
MP D. Ravikumar, DMK, Tamil Nadu
Dia Mirza, Actor & Mother
Irom Sharmila, Social Activist
MP K Jayakumar, INC,Tamil Nadu.
MP Farooq Abdulla, Jammu and Kashmir National Conference
MP Maneka Gandhi, Lok Sabha, BJP.
MP Mahua Maji, JMM, Jharkhand
Dr. Mira Shiva, Public Health Physician.
Mallika Sarabhai, Social Activist and Dancer.
MP Mohammad Basheer, Indian Union Muslim League, Kerala.
Dr. Sarika Verma, Spokesperson, AAP Haryana
MP Saugata Roy, Trinamool Congress, Lok Sabha, West Bengal
MP T.N Prathapan, INC, Kerala
Tushar Gandhi, Great Grandson of Mahatma Gandhi; Founder of Mahatma Gandhi Foundation.
Former MP Rajeev Gowda, INC, Rajya Sabha Karnataka
MP Shashi Tharoor, INC, Lok Sabha Kerala
Former MP Subhashini Ali, CPI (M)
MP Vandana Chavan, Rajya Sabha, NCP Maharashtra.
MP Varun Gandhi, BJP, Lok Sabha
