Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) extended to all poor households

The central Government has decided to extend the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) to all poor households in the country.
Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) is the government’s flagship programme to provide free cooking gas (LPG) connections. The PMUY scheme targets to reach out to provide free LPG connections to 80 million families by 2020.
With the expansion of the PMUY scheme, all the poor households can avail the benefit from PMUY and it will not be mandatory to be part of the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) list or the seven identified categories under the programme to be eligible for the scheme.
Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) was launched in May 2016. The initial target set for the scheme was to provide 50 million LPG connections to below poverty line (BPL) families by 2019, by giving financial assistance of Rs 1600 per family. Till now, Under PMUY schemes 58.5 million connections have been given across 715 districts. As per the government data, About  80 per cent of the beneficiaries come back for a second refill and about 45 per cent take three or more refills annually. The government has also recently launched LPG Panchayats to promote the PMUY scheme.
The vision behind the scheme: The successful implementation of the scheme will ensure universal coverage of cooking gas in India, which will help in women empowerment and also will protect their health. The time spent on cooking and drudgery will reduce. Additionally, it will also generate employment for youth in the rural areas in the supply chain of LPG.

Month: Current Affairs - December, 2018