Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana achieves Five crore mark
New Delhi 03-Aug-2018
Ms. Sumitra Mahajan, Speaker, Lok Sabha, on August 3, 2018, handed over Five croreth LPG connection under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) to Ms. Takrdiran of Delhi, in the Parliament House. Ms. Mahajan, while acknowledging the vision of Mr. Narendra Modi, Prime Minister and the leadership of Mr. Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, appreciated the collective efforts of the officials of Ministry and the Oil Marketing Companies in achieving the target of Five crore. Further, she shared advantages of using LPG in terms of health benefits, time saved and ensuring safety of women. The Central Government led by Mr. Modi launched Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) on May 1, 2016, and it is implemented by Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas through its Oil Marketing Companies i.e, IndianOil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum through their network of distributors across the country. Through PMUY, initially, Five crore BPL households were targeted for providing deposit free LPG connections to BPL households by March 31, 2019.
In a record time of 28 months for its launch, PMUY achieved the initial target of providing Five crores LPG connection to BPL households. In the current year, considering the huge success of the scheme, target was revised to Eight crore with budgetary allocation of Rs. 12,800 crore. States of Uttar Pradesh (87 lakh), West Bengal (67 lakh), Bihar (61 lakh), Madhya Pradesh (45 lakh), Rajasthan (37 lakh) and Odisha (30 lakh) have accounted for nearly 65% of the connections provided. 47% of the beneficiaries are from the weaker sections of the society i.e., SC/STs.
PMUY has been recognised by the World Health Organisation as one of the decisive intervention by the Government to address the Indoor Air Pollution which accounts for nearly 10 lakh deaths in a year in the country. PMUY aims at providing clean-cooking fuel to the poor households, which are otherwise vulnerable to various health hazards associated with indoor air pollution and bringing in qualitative changes in the living standards. PMUY is under implementation in the all the States/UTs. Beneficiaries are identified through Socio-Economic Caste Census List-2011 and in such cases where names are not covered under SECC list, beneficiaries are identified from seven categories which includes SC/ST households, beneficiaries of PMAY (Gramin), Antyodaya Anna Yojana, Most Backward Classes, Forest Dwellers, Resident of Islands/River Islands and Tea Garden and Ex-tea Garden Tribes.
