Lucknow, March 10 : The Yogi Adityanath government will provide a free LPG cylinder to underprivileged women and their families as a 'Holi gift', said a government spokesperson here.

'The government decided to provide two cylinders for 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,' he said on Saturday.

The state government has allocated a budget of Rs 2,312 crore for the financial year 2023-24 to provide 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 from November 1, 2023, to February 15, 2024.

In the second phase, cylinder refills have been distributed to approximately 50.87 lakh beneficiaries from January 1, 2024, until the present time.

'A total of 131.17 lakh (over 1.31 crore) cylinder refills have been distributed thus far under the scheme. Upon launching the scheme on November 10, 2023, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath simultaneously transferred the subsidy amount to the accounts of lakhs of Ujjwala beneficiaries,' the spokesman added.

/IANS