Pradhan Mantri Ujjawala Yojana (PMUY) was launched today at Shahdol by  Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Chief Minister, Madhya Pradesh in the presence of Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

Shri Om Prakash Dhurve, Minister of Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Protection, Labour, Madhya Pradesh, Dr. Gauri Shankar Shejwar, Minister, Forests, Planning, Statistics, Madhya Pradesh, Shri Gyan Singh, Minister, Tribal Welfare & Scheduled Castes Welfare, Shri Rampal Singh, Minister, Public Works Department, Madhya Pradesh graced the occasion. Other distinguished guests included Members of Parliament,  Members of  Madhya Pradesh  Legislative Assembly &  Council besides senior officials from MoPNG, Oil Industry and State Government.  Women from BPL families from the state were handed over LPG connections by the dignitaries to mark the launch of the PMUY in the state. 

In his address, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana is an excellent scheme and it fulfills the vision of Hon’ble Prime Minister to provide clean fuel to the BPL families and is a boon to women to experience cooking without smoke. He thanked Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas for accepting his suggestion of commencing this scheme in Madhya Pradesh from Shahdol. He also announced various welfare schemes of the State Government.

Addressing the gathering, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of State (I/C), MoPNG informed that the scheme would impact the lives of women from BPL families in a major way by reducing the drudgery of cooking with polluting fuels, and go a long way in reducing indoor pollution and other health related problems being faced by them. He said that the main mantra of PMUY is “Mahilaon Ko Mila Samman, Swacch Indhan-Behtar Jeevan”. Under this scheme, 5 Cr LPG connections will be provided to BPL households. Over the next three years, Rs. 8000 crore will be provided by Govt. of India with a matching contribution of Rs. 8000 crore by the OMCs. The later will be utilized for extending interest-free loans to such poor families. The PMUY scheme is aimed at replacing the unclean cooking fuels mostly used in rural India with more clean and efficient LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas). The scheme aims at empowering women and protecting their health and reducing the number of deaths in India, due to use of unclean cooking fuels.  

Shri Pradhan further added that the Government aims to add 50 lakh new connections in the state of Madhya Pradesh in the next three years,   of which 35 lakh connections will be provided to  BPL families under PMUY, and 15 lakh connections to non BPL families.. This will increase the present LPG connections from 70 lakhs to 120 lakhs in the State.  He stressed that emuneration and distribution of LPG connections under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana will be undertaken in a transparent manner. He informed that there has been a growth of  about  32% in the LPG penetration in the state of Madhya Pradesh during last two years (about 23 lakh new connections).

Distinguished speakers, in their addresses, emphasized on the major change that PMUY would bring to the lifestyles of women from the BPL families. They lauded the efforts of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas in implementing the Women Welfare oriented scheme and in fulfilling the dream of Shri Narendra Modi, Hon’ble Prime Minister in recognizing and addressing the problems faced by women.

Under the visionary leadership of Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has taken a series of people welfare oriented schemes. Hon’ble Prime Minister in his address on 27^th March 2015 had made an appeal to well-to-do families to give up their subsidy on LPG connections so that the money thus saved can be utilized for giving connections to less privileged homes. Taking the appeal forward, MOP&NG launched the ‘Give It Up’ campaign and  in little over an year’s time,  more than 1 crore people across the country from all walks of life, including those from middle class have come forward to support this initiative bringing smiles to a million homes. Another scheme by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, under the guidance of Hon’ble Prime Minister, which had received worldwide recognition is the immensely successful "PAHAL Yojana”. This direct cash transfer scheme has brought an end to leakage of LPG subsidies which are now reaching people more effectively. The scheme has been highly effective in elimination of duplicate LPG connections. The "PAHAL" scheme has been acknowledged by the Guinness Book of World Records for being the largest cash transfer program (households) in the world. Currently, 16.72 crore LPG customers are receiving their subsidy directly in to their bank accounts.

With 2016 being declared as the ‘Year of Consumers’ by Mr.Dharmendra Pradhan, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has ensured that Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) offer customer centric offerings like Sahaj – the online booking and release of new connections, the online booking and payment for LPG refills, ‘1906’- the 24x7 LPG leakage Emergency telephone helpline, to name a few.

YB