The Uttar Pradesh government is gearing up to provide free gas cylinders to underprivileged women and their families throughout the state to make Holi, the festival of colours special for them, official sources said here on Saturday.

Sources told UNI the initiative will directly benefit approximately 1.75 crore people.

The Yogi government had previously extended a similar gesture by providing free cylinders to women during Diwali.

The government decided to provide 2 cylinders free in a year under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana. As part of this initiative, the first cylinder was made available during Diwali, and now the second cylinder will be provided during Holi.

The government has allocated a budget of Rs 2,312 crore for the financial year 2023-24 to distribute two free cylinder refills to approximately 1.75 crore beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana in the state.

In the first phase of the scheme, cylinder refills were distributed to a total of 80.30 lakh beneficiaries between November 1, 2023, to February 15 this year.

In the second phase, cylinder refills have been distributed to approximately 50.87 lakh beneficiaries from January 1.

Consequently, a total of 1.31 crore cylinder refills have been distributed so far under the scheme.

Since the launch of the scheme on November 10, 2023, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath simultaneously transferred the subsidy amount to the accounts of lakhs of Ujjwala beneficiaries.

(With UNI inputs)