Poor should get free LPG cylinders, says Mulayam Singh Yadav

LUCKNOW: Reacting to the Centre's decision of raising the quota of subsidised LPG to 12 cylinders per year, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav today said the limit should be raised to 24 and poor should get it free.

"That is not a big deal...The number should be 24 and not 12 and poor should get it free," Yadav said when asked to react on Union cabinet's decision.

After Rahul Gandhi's assertion at AICC session on January 17 that the cap should be hiked, the government today raised the quota of subsidised LPG to 12 cylinders per household in a year from nine at present and also put on hold paying users the subsidy into bank accounts using Aadhaar platform.

Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily today said raising the LPG quota will cost Rs 5,000 crore in additional subsidy annually.

When reporters asked the chief of the ruling party in Uttar Pradesh about the steps taken to mitigate the sufferings of Muzaffarnagar riot victims, he said compensation and jobs were provided to them.

"The riots were controlled in two days...Job were given to victims; Rs 10 lakh compensation to deceased kin and Rs two lakhs was given for construction of houses... Has any government did so in the past...Had they (riot victims) got this much in Gujarat", he said.

The former UP chief minister was here to attend an event of joining of former MP and BSP leader Sukhlal Kushwaha at party office.

Kushwaha, who once defeated Congress leader late Arjun Singh in MP, claimed that SP would emerge as third force in the Madhya Pradesh.