In accordance with the report of the Parliamentary Committee on Petroleum headed by BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) member Ramesh Bidhuri, only three States and five Union Territories have become kerosene-free even though in September 2019 the government has met the target of 8 crore LPG (Liquefied petroleum gas) connections under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY).
- The kerosene-free states are Haryana, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh and Union Territories (UTs) are Delhi, Chandigarh, Daman & Diu, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Andaman & Nicobar Island and Puducherry.
- The report points the gap between the continuing use of kerosene and the claim of 97% LPG coverage nationwide.
View Points of Petroleum Ministry: Target achieved in Sept, 2019, PMUY closed
-As of September 7, 2019, the govt has met the target of 96.9% coverage nationwide, except in Jammu and Kashmir.
-The allocation for the scheme has been declined by 58% from ₹2,724 crore during 2019-20 to ₹1,118 crore during 2020-21. The scheme has been closed and the present funds are meant to meet the arrears in the reimbursement of expenditure.
View Points of Petroleum committee; general category poor households still uses kerosene
-Large segments of people in various States still depended on kerosene for cooking and household lighting specially the poor households in the general category in urban and semi-urban localities.
-The committee recommends that the scheme has to be extended to poor households in urban and semi-urban slum areas, and achieve a higher LPG coverage of the population by providing connections to households that do not have LPG.
About PMUY:
Launched in 2016, the scheme aims to provide LPG connections to 5 crore women belonging to Below Poverty Line (BPL) families over a period of 3 years starting from FY 2016-17. Its objective is to safeguard the health of women & children by providing them with a clean cooking fuel i.e. LPG.
