NEW DELHI, Feb 11 (NNN-PTI) – The number of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) connections in India rose to nearly 288 million, thus catering to the needs of nearly 99.5 percent of the total population, federal minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan, informed parliament yesterday.
In a written reply to a question raised in parliament, the minister said, implementation of the federal government’s ambitious scheme – “Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY)” (Prime Minister Clean Energy Scheme), resulted in an increase in national LPG coverage from 61.9 percent on Apr 1, 2016, to 99.5 percent as of Jan 1, 2021.
“As on Jan 1, 2021, the total number of LPG consumers is 287.4 million,” said the minister.
In the Union Budget announced on Feb 1, Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, announced to provide 10 million more LPG connections, under the PMUY scheme this year.
Launched in May, 2016, with the tagline: “Swachh Indhan, Behtar Jeevan” (Clean Fuel Better Life), the PMUY envisaged smoke free rural India, and aims to benefit 50 million families, especially women living below poverty line, by providing concessional LPG connections to the entire nation by 2019. The scheme will increase the usage of LPG and would help in reducing health disorders, air pollution and deforestation.– NNN-PTI
