Pranab Mukherjee presents 2.5 croreth Ujjwala connection

NEW DELHI (INDIA): The 2.5 Croreth LPG Connection under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) was given out to Gouri Sarkar of Raghunathgunj by President of India, Pranab Mukherjee in the presence of Minister of State  for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan and Abhijit Mukherjee, Member of Parliament in a function held today at Jangipur, West Bengal.nnThis marked the completion of release of 2.5 crore LPG connections to women beneficiaries from below poverty line (BPL) households across the country under the PMUY.nnWhile distributing PMUY connections to 11 beneficiaries, Hon?ble President expressed his happiness to note that the PMUY has crossed the 2.5 Cr connections within a span of 14 months.nnPMUY was launched by Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi on 1st May 2016 at Ballia, Uttar Pradesh, which is changing lives of the women in the country especially of those belonging to the under-privileged section of the society.nnOn the occasion, Pradhan thanked President for taking his time out to present the 2.5th crore LPG connection under PMUY scheme.nnHe said that after the launch of PMUY scheme by Hon?ble Prime Minister of India on 1st May 2016 at Ballia Uttar Pradesh, more than 2.49 crore connections have been released till date. Out of which largest no of connections (55 lakh) have been released in UP.nnHe pointed out that 2nd largest number of LPG connections have been released in the state of West Bengal. He added that to expand the reach of LPG in West Bengal, more than 600 distributorships will be commissioned in the state out of which more than 50 distributorships will be commissioned in Murshidabad district.nnPradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), is a scheme to provide clean cooking fuel to the women belonging to the ?Below Poverty Line? (BPL) households across the country.nnPMUY aims to provide LPG connections to 5 Crore BPL households by 2019 and is a part of larger program of adding 10 Crore new LPG connections by 2019 to achieve full coverage of connections in Indian households. This is the first time in the history of the country that the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas is implementing a welfare scheme benefitting crores of women belonging to the BPL households.nnThe identification of BPL families has been made on Social Economic Caste Census (SECC)- 2011 data. Providing LPG connections to BPL households has been a landmark program that is ensuring universal coverage of cooking gas in the country.The scheme of providing clean cooking fuel has also reduced drudgery, the time spent on cooking and also provides employment for rural youth in the supply chain of cooking gas.nnPMUY scheme provides assistance of Rs. 1600/- to the woman beneficiary, comprising security deposit of 14.2 Kg cylinder and domestic pressure regulator; suraksha hose; domestic gas consumer card and installation charges.nnIn the financial year 2016-17, Oil Marketing Companies have given 3.25 Cr new connections across the country. This is the highest ever LPG connections released in any given year. In the current fiscal PMUY connections have been presented so far to women beneficiaries from across the country, taking the total number of active LPG consumers to 20.7 Crores.nnLPG demand in the country has registered a growth rate of more than 33% during last three years. More than 5000 new distributors have been added in the last 3 years which have come up primarily in rural areas to cater to the enhanced LPG demand generated by PMUY.