Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved to enhance of the target of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) from five crore to eight crore with an additional allocation of Rs. 4,800 crore. The decision comes in the wake of huge response to Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) from the women particularly in rural areas and to cover such households not having LPG connection. The revised target of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) will be achieved by 2020.
While expanding the target, the Government has also addressed the practical difficulty faced in PMUY implementation, namely, genuinely poor households left out of Socio Economic Caste Survey (SECC) list. The Cabinet approved to expand the Scheme to cover all SC/ST households, beneficiaries of PMAY (Gramin), Antyoday Anna Yojana (AAY), Forest dwellers, Most Backward Classes (MBC), Tea and Ex-Tea Garden Tribes, people residing in Islands and rivers etc. in addition to SECC identified households.
The Government is committed to their time-bound implementation. Under the PMUY, the original target was to release 3 crore connections by the end of FY 2017-18, but as a result of efficient scheme implementation and monitoring, more than 3.35 crore connections have been released till date across all States/UTs, largely benefitting SC/ST communities. In all, more than 4.65 crore applications have been received. In order to ensure smooth implementation of the Scheme, as the number of applications touches the 5 crore mark and on account of huge response from women, particularly in rural areas, the Cabinet has decided to enhance the target from 5 crore to 8 crore.
