According to data released by the Ministry for Petroleum & Natural Gas on December 29, 2016, Government has achieved its target of providing 1.5 crore free LPG connections under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) to the BPL households in less than 8 months.
Key Highlights
The Government had made a provision of Rs 2,000 crore in the Budget for providing LPG connection free of cost to Rs. 1.5 crore poor BPL households in 2016-17. However, the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas informed that the effort to provide clean energy was met within 8 months.
- The implementation of PMUY has led to an increase in the national LPG coverage from 61% (as on January 1) to 70% (as on December 12, 2016).
- The top five states which experienced the maximum LPG connections are UP (46 lakh), West Bengal (19 lakh), Bihar (19 lakh), Madhya Pradesh (17 lakh) and Rajasthan (14 lakh). These states constituted nearly 75% of the total connections
- Out of the total connections, the households belonging to SC/ST constituted major portion of beneficiaries with 35% of the connections being released to them.
- The government stated that 14 states/UTs having LPG coverage less than the national average, hilly states of J&K, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and all North-East States are identified as priority states for implementing the scheme.
About Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUJ)
The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana is a welfare program of the government of India, launched by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 1, 2016 from Balia, Uttar Pradesh
- The objective of the scheme is to provide 5 crore LPG connections to Below Poverty Line (BPL) families over a period of three years.
- The scheme was announced in the Budget for 2016-17 on February 29, with an allocation of Rs 8,000 crore for three years.
- An adult woman member of BPL family identified through Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) data is given a deposit free LPG connection with financial assistance of Rs. 1600/- per connection by Government of India.
Benefits of PMUJ
India is home to more than 24 crore households, of which about 10 crore still do not have access to LPG for cooking and have to rely on firewood, coal, dung cakes as primary fuel for cooking. This leads to many health problem including respiratory issue.
- With the LPG connection, the health hazards that the BPL families have to face will be reduced.
- Since the LPG connection is being provided in the name of women, it will lead to increase in women empowerment.
