Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY)

Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana is a scheme of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas launched by Prime Minister of India on 1^st May 2016 (in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh) to distribute 50 million LPG connections to women from Below Poverty Line (BPL) households.

• The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana aims to provide clean fuel to women who are below poverty line who generally use unclean cooking fuels that does more harm than good and replace the same with LPG. The objective includes protecting the health of women and empowering them; curbing health issues that result from using fossil fuels and other fuels for cooking and controlling respiratory issues etc.
• Benefits under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana have been extended to people of all Hilly States including North-East States by treating them as ‘Priority States’. This step effectively addresses the difficulty faced by poor people residing in the States of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Tripura in accessing LPG for cooking purposes.
• Till now, the scheme has covered 715 districts across the country. The scheme led to an increase in LPG consumption by 56% in 2019 as compared to 2014. However, while access to LPG gas stoves and cylinders has increased in the scheme, the use of LPG cylinders remains low.
• At the 107^th Indian Science Congress held on January 2020 in Bengaluru, the government declared that technology has helped India “in recognizing the 8 crore women who were still using coal or wood for cooking” and also “in understanding how many new distribution centres must be built, via the help of technology”.
• The basic criticism of the scheme is that the poor in some areas are unable to afford a refill after first use. One of the major challenges before the government is that the annual average refill by a PMUY consumer is 3.28 cylinders compared to seven for others.
• Recently, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has expressed concerns over Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) in terms of low consumption, diversions and considerable delays in supply of cylinders.
• The government is now focusing more on the awareness than the implementation of the schemes and also promoting 5kg cylinders that are economical for the poor class.