States don't have land for Kargil widows' petrol pumps

New Delhi, May 16 (UNI) A number of petrol pumps sanctioned to widows of Kargil martyrs could not become operational because of the inability of state governments to allot land to them.

The fact came to light in the reply of Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Murli Deora during the Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha today.

He said that 492 cases of Kargil widows had been recommended by the Defence Ministry since the start of a special scheme for allotment of retail outlet dealership in 1999, out of which 479 cases were approved by the government. As many as 436 were issued letters of intent, but only 389 could be commissioned as the state governments failed to provide land for them.

He, however, could not name specific states which had not allotted land to the widows.

Replying to a supplementary by Mr Manohar Joshi of the BJP, he said the same situation is faced by widows of the security personnel killed in the terrorist attack on Parliament.

He said nine application had been received from the dependents of the martyred securitymen, and all had been approved. Out of these four had been allotted petrol pumps but five cases were pending for lack of land.

To a question put up by Ms Sushma Swaraj, also of the BJP, he said the reason for non-commissioning of some of the petrol pumps allotted to Kargil widows was that the site allotted to them was not found commercially feasible by the oil companies concerned.

Earlier, Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat directed the Government to come out with latest information regarding the status of implementation of the scheme, saying it was an important matter about which Members of the House were very much concerned.

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