The 2.5 croreth LPG connection under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) was given to Smt. Gouri Sarkar of Raghunathgunj by President Shri Pranab Mukherjee in the presence ofMinister of State (I/C) for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan in a function held today at Jangipur, West Bengal.
While distributing PMUY connections to 11 beneficiaries, Hon’ble President expressed his happiness to note that the PMUY has crossed the 2.5 Cr connections within a span of 14 months.
PMUY was launched by PM Shri Narendra Modi on 1st May 2016 at Ballia, Uttar Pradesh, which is changing lives of the women in the country especially of those belonging to the under-privileged section of the society.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan said that till now the largest no of connections (55 lakh) have been released in UP followed by West Bengal.
PMUY is a scheme to provide clean cooking fuel to the women belonging to the ‘Below Poverty Line’ (BPL) households across the country with a target to provide LPG connections to 5 crore BPL households by 2019 and is a part of larger program of adding 10 Crore new LPG connections by 2019 to achieve full coverage of connections in Indian households. Providing LPG connections to BPL households has been a landmark program that is ensuring universal coverage of cooking gas in the country.The scheme of providing clean cooking fuel has also reduced drudgery, the time spent on cooking and also provides employment for rural youth in the supply chain of cooking gas. PMUY scheme provides assistance of Rs. 1600/- to the woman beneficiary, comprising security deposit of 14.2 Kg cylinder and domestic pressure regulator; suraksha hose; domestic gas consumer card and installation charges.
In the financial year 2016-17, 3.25 cr new connections have been given across the country, taking the total number of active LPG consumers to 20.7 Crores. LPG demand in the country has registered a growth rate of more than 33% during last 3 years.
