*NEW DELHI: Reena Devi says her life changed when she got a cooking gasconnection under a billion-dollar programme championed by India’s PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, meaning she no longer has to cook with wood or coaland breathe in smelly, toxic fumes.*

But the programme to connect millions of homes to gas, empower women andcut pollution — designed as a key vote-winning policy for Modi — has beenbeset by allegations of corruption and misuse.

Devi says she had to pay 3,000 rupees ($43) for the “free” kit — theequivalent of a month’s wages for most people in her village Nisarpura, inIndia’s poorest state, Bihar.

“I pleaded with the officials that this is supposed to be free but theygave me two options: Pay and take the kit or forget it,” Devi said, rollingout bread to be cooked on the stove.

Critics say the programme has been marred by bribes and corruption and thatthe poor households targeted by the scheme cannot afford to pay for gasrefills, pushing those who have received new stoves back to traditionalfuels.

But the prime minister, seeking a second term in India’s marathon nationalelection, has touted the cooking gas scheme a success as he campaignsaround the country.

Batting away criticism, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government saysmore than 70 million poor households across India now have gas stoves.

*– Unfinished meal –*

Modi launched his “Ujjwala Yojana” (“bright scheme”) in May 2016, and isaiming to connect 80 million rural households to gas by 2022.

Household pollution is a serious health hazard in India, with a WorldHealth Organization (WHO) report saying that smoke inhaled by women fromunclean fuel is a major cause of cancer, heart disease and strokes.

In a bid to move India towards clean energy, the scheme offers recipients aloan of 1,600 rupees ($23) that covers the cost of the stove, connectionpipes, regulator and a gas canister.

The loan is supposed to be paid back through the purchase of subsidised gasrefills.

In Nisarpura, Jamintra Devi applied for a connection but local officialswould not give it unless she paid a bribe.

“We come back from work at midnight or 1:00am and then we have to cook onwood,” said Devi, who is not related to Reena.

Some recipients say their kits have effectively been repossessed.

Shahjahan Khatoon, from an impoverished neighbourhood of the state capital,Patna, enrolled in the scheme in January 2018.

Two months later, officials distributing gas canisters came to her homelooking for money.

She had already paid them 700 rupees ($10) to get the connection, but theydemanded 4,000 rupees more — far beyond her means.

“I told them that I don’t have money. They removed the gas cylinder andstove and left,” Khatoon told AFP.

“I was in the middle of cooking lunch and they didn’t even let me finishthe meal.”

A senior member of Modi’s ruling party also drew online ridicule this monthafter posting a video of himself with a family in eastern India — whichshowed the family burning firewood under a traditional earth stove.

*– Hot air –*

The government set aside 80 billion rupees ($1.14 billion) when the schemewas launched to fund the gas connections which it said would “empower”women, and have since extended that to 120 billion rupees.

The red gas canisters are emblazoned with the slogan “respecting thedignity of women”, and only women can qualify for the project.

In Bihar state alone, eight million people have received cooking gasconnections, but a study by the Indian non-profit Research Institute forCompassionate Economics this month said 36 percent of households in four ofIndia’s largest states, including Bihar, still use traditional fuel.

Despite sometimes patchy success, the WHO last year praised the scheme,saying that in two years it had helped 37 million women living below thepoverty line to move to clean energy.

But the pressure of fluctuating gas prices could force many poor Indiansback towards using wood, coal or cow dung instead.

Sanjay Kumar, a gas canister distributor in Patna, has around 5,000customers who have gas connections from Modi’s programme.

But at least half stop buying refills and return to traditional fuel ifprices rise even slightly, he said.

“Our country is still poor. Families in rural India still can’t affordrefills when the rates are high.” -APP/AFP