The Delhi government has transferred more than ₹142 crore directly into the bank accounts of over 1.5 million ration-card-holder families to support the purchase of a free LPG cylinder for Diwali, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said at an event in the capital on Tuesday.
The transfer was made through the direct benefit transfer (DBT) system from an event held at Talkatora Stadium, according to a report by Jagran – New Delhi. The programme covered families holding ration cards and was presented by the chief minister as part of the Delhi government’s support for household budgets during the festival season.
The announcement makes the scale of the exercise clear: the transfer covers more than 15 lakh families and involves over ₹142 crore in public funds. The money has been sent directly to beneficiaries’ bank accounts rather than being distributed through a physical cylinder delivery programme, according to the report.
Gupta said the assistance was intended to help women managing household expenses and to make their domestic budgets easier to handle. In a social media post cited by the report, she described the transfer as a Diwali gift for Delhi’s mothers and sisters and said the government was committed to making their lives easier and increasing household savings.
The chief minister also linked the transfer to a promise made after the Holi period. The report said the government had provided a similar festival-related benefit after Holi and that the Diwali transfer was being presented as a continuation of that commitment. The supplied report does not provide details of the earlier transfer, including its amount, eligibility conditions or the number of beneficiaries covered.
The programme also places the DBT mechanism at the centre of the benefit. Direct transfers can allow governments to reach eligible households through bank accounts, but the report does not provide operational details such as the date by which the money will reflect in every account, the process for resolving failed transactions or the documentation required from beneficiaries. It also does not specify whether the transferred amount is uniform for all eligible families.
The event was attended by Member of Parliament Bansuri Swaraj, Cabinet colleague Manjinder Singh Sirsa and legislators Abhay Verma, Jitendra Mahajan, Kuldeep Solanki and Chandan Chaudhary, according to the report. Their presence underlined the political and administrative visibility of the programme, although the report did not identify any separate announcements on implementation or monitoring.
For eligible households, the immediate issue will be access to the transferred funds and their ability to use the assistance for an LPG cylinder. The report identifies ration-card holders as the beneficiary group but does not provide a district-wise breakdown, a helpline, a grievance process or details of how households can check the status of the payment.
The Delhi government’s next stated step is the delivery of the Diwali-linked LPG assistance through the completed bank transfers. Further operational details on beneficiary verification, payment status and grievance redressal were not included in the supplied announcement.
