India to provide aid to Nepal in form of LPG stoves, gas cylinders, 3,000 households in 3 border districts to benefit

India has decided to provide 3,000 LPG gas stoves, gas cylinders, and accessories to underprivileged households in three districts of Nepal bordering India, it was announced on Wednesday.

An MoU was signed on Wednesday between Embassy of India and the Nepal-India Women Friendship Society (NIWFS) under India-Nepal Development Cooperation for distribution of LPG gas stoves, gas cylinders and accessories to underprivileged households in three districts viz. Sarlahi, Rautahat and Saptari of Madhesh Pradesh under the financial assistance of the Indian government.

The LPG gas stoves, gas cylinders and accessories are being given through Society in these three districts with the grant assistance of Nepali Rs 20.49 million, the Indian embassy in Nepal stated.

This scheme is one of the 75 projects being inaugurated this year in Nepal as part of "India@75 Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav" which celebrates 75 years of India's independence.

The project is inspired by the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), a flagship scheme with an objective to make clean cooking fuel such as LPG, available to the rural and deprived households which were otherwise using traditional cooking fuels such as firewood, coal, cow-dung cakes etc, according to the statement.

Since 2003, India has taken up over 523 high impact community development projects (HICDPs) in Nepal in various sectors like health, education, drinking water and irrigation, electrification among others and has completed 467 projects.

Amongst these, 81 projects have been undertaken in Province 2, including 19 projects in Sarlahi, 5 projects in Rautahat, and 9 projects in Saptari districts. In addition to these, 87 ambulances to various health posts and 3 school buses have been gifted in these three districts by India.