Tamil Nadu has begun collecting household LPG connection details for a proposed scheme that would provide three free cooking gas cylinders a year, with the first payments expected from the 2027 Pongal festival, Dinamalar reported. The state government is gathering data from public-sector oil companies to identify eligible beneficiaries and determine the number of cylinders linked to each household.
The scheme, described in the report as the first phase of the “Annapoorani Super Six” programme, is expected to benefit around 1.30 crore families. The government is reportedly planning to allocate Rs 4,000 crore annually for the programme. The proposed benefit would be transferred to beneficiaries’ bank accounts rather than delivered through physical cylinders.
According to the report, families with annual incomes of up to Rs 2.50 lakh, small and marginal farmers, and families of persons with disabilities are among those expected to qualify. The final eligibility conditions, however, will depend on rules to be issued by the state government.
The reported plan is to provide one cylinder each before Pongal, Tamil New Year and Deepavali. Payments would be credited to beneficiaries’ bank accounts ahead of the respective festivals. The arrangement would make the scheme a recurring household-support programme tied to the annual festival calendar.
A Tamil Nadu Finance Department official quoted by Dinamalar said the government was seeking more precise information because the state has issued 2.08 crore ration cards linked to Aadhaar. The administration is collecting details on households with one or two LPG connections, as well as the number of beneficiaries who received free connections under the Union government’s Ujjwala scheme.
The data collection is intended to address a practical administrative question: which ration-card households currently have LPG connections, how many cylinders are attached to each connection and whether households fall within the proposed income and social categories. The information gathered from oil companies will reportedly be matched with ration-card records before beneficiaries are selected.
The state’s e-governance agency is expected to verify the information. The official cited in the report said ration-card holders may also be asked to submit applications or provide additional details for the free-cylinder scheme. This process would allow the government to reconcile oil-company records with state welfare databases before approving payments.
The reported announcement follows a promise made during the previous Assembly election by Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam to provide six free cylinders a year if it came to power. The current proposal would begin with three cylinders annually, according to the report.
The immediate next step is the completion of beneficiary data collection from oil companies and ration-card households. The state will then apply its eligibility conditions, verify the records through the e-governance system and identify the households eligible for payments from Pongal 2027.
