NEW DELHI: The price of commercial cooking gas cylinders has been hiked. The rate of 19 kg cylinder has been hiked by Rs 209. With this, the price of a cylinder in Kochi will be Rs 1747.50. The price of a commercial cylinder was reduced by Rs 160 on September 1.

The union cabinet had recently approved a subsidy of Rs 1650 crore for new LPG connections under the Ujjwala Yojana. 75 lakh new connections have been approved. With this, the total number of beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana will rise to 10.35 crore. The Ujjwala Yojana scheme was implemented with the aim of providing clean cooking fuel like LPG to rural women as the use of traditional cooking fuels has adversely affected the health and environment of rural women. As per the present practice, the first refill cylinder and stove are provided free of cost to Ujjwala beneficiaries.