Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a surprise visit on Saturday to the Ayodhya home of Meera Manjhi, the tenth-crore beneficiary of the PM Ujjwala Yojana, and had tea at her residence during his one-day tour of the temple city.
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As Mr. Modi arrived for his cup of tea and 10-minute chat with Ms. Manjhi’s family, the entire area resonated with enthusiastic chants of “Modi-Modi.”
The PM later posted about the visit on social media, noting his satisfaction that the scheme had eased the family’s life. “I had a ‘Chai pe Charcha’ at the house of Meera Ji, the 10th crore beneficiary of Ujjwala Yojana, and her family members in Ayodhya. I felt very satisfied to know how government schemes have made the life of the entire family easier,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter), posting a video of the conversation.
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“Do you know why I came here today?” the video shows him asking as he arrived at Ms. Manjhi’s home. “We have given gas cylinders to 10 crore families. I wanted to visit the family that takes the number to 10 crore. And it was in Ayodhya only,” he added.
Hours after the Prime Minister visited Ms. Manjhi, Ayodhya Divisional Commissioner Gaurav Dayal and District Magistrate Nitish Kumar reached her residence with the Ayushman card under the Mukhyamantri Jan Arogya Yojana. Mr. Dayal said that instructions were issued from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) to the Principal Secretary of Health to provide the Ujjawala beneficiary with an Ayushman card under the Mukhyamantri Jan Arogya Bima Yojana.
Launched in May 2016 to provide subsidised LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) connections to poor households, the Ujjwala scheme aims to empower women, protecting their health and reducing the number of deaths in India due to unclean cooking fuel.