Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana launched in Patna; 40 BPL families provided connection to mark launch
New Delhi 28-Jun-2016
Mr. Dharmendra Pradhan, Hon'ble MoS, MoP&NG presenting
a LPG connection to one of the beneficiaries of the PMUY scheme
in Patna, in the presence of Mr. Mr. Ramvilas Paswan,
Hon'ble Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution; Mr.
Ravi Shankar Prasad, Hon'ble Minister of Communications and IT, and
other dignitaries.
The Pradhan Mantri Ujjawala Yojana (PMUY) was launched in Patna yesterday. Mr. Ramvilas Paswan, Hon'ble Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution; Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad, Hon'ble Minister of Communications and IT; Mr. Radha Mohan Singh, Hon'ble Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare; Mr. Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Hon'ble Minister of State (I/c), Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, and Parliamentary Affairs; Mr. Dharmendra Pradhan, Hon'ble Minister of State (I/c), Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas; Mr. Ram Kripal Yadav, Hon'ble MoS, Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation; Mr. Giriraj Singh, Hon'ble MoS, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises; Mr. Upendra Kushwaha, Hon'ble MoS, Ministry of HRD; Mr. Jitan Ram Manjhi, Hon'ble ex-Chief Minister, Bihar; Mr. Sushil Kumar Modi, Hon'ble Leader of Opp., Bihar Legislative Council; Mr. Prem Kumar, Hon'ble Leader of Opp., Bihar Legislative Assembly; and distinguished guests including Members of Parliament, Members of Bihar Legislative Assembly & Council besides senior officials from MoP&NG and oil Industry graced the occasion.
Forty 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.
Launching the scheme in Bihar, Mr. Dharmendra Pradhan, Hon'ble Minister of State (I/C), MoPNG said that the it would impact the lives of women from BPL families by reducing the drudgery of cooking with polluting fuels and also go a long way in reducing indoor pollution as well as various health-related problems due to unhealthy kitchens. He said that the main mantra of PMUY is “Mahilaon Ko Mila Samman, Swacch Indhan-Behtar Jeevan”. Under this scheme, five crore 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 towards the implementing the scheme. 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 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.
Elaborating on the initiatives taken to expand the coverage of oil and gas sector in Bihar, Mr. Pradhan said that with two upcoming Bottling Plants in the state – by IndianOil in Banka, and by HPCL in Saugli- along with capacity augmentation to the eight existing plants, the Government is committed to provide world class services to existing 68.35 Lakh LPG customers of Bihar. The 20 lakhs customers have been provided with LPG connections in last two years and another 60 lakhs will be added in the coming three years, taking the total to 1.3 crore customers.
He told that many districts in Bihar have LPG penetration less than 20%. He told that endeavor will be made to increase the penetration to provide relief to women from disease and smoke. In order to ensure that every households in Bihar have access to LPG cooking, he told that an amount of Rs. 2000 cr. is earmarked for the benefit of 1.5 crore beneficiaries. This is the part of development agenda of Hon'ble Prime Minister Sh. Narendra Modi. He emphasized that in last two years of Govt. around 20 lakh households in Bihar have been given connections against 48 lack households having LPG connections in last 6 decades. In Bihar, in next 3 years around 50 lakh poor women will be benefitted by this outreach program of PMUY. For providing such a large number of LPG connections, 2000 new distributorships are planned to be appointed. 100 such distributors are planned to be appointed by next August '16. He pointed out that this year an amount of Rs. 2000 crore has been earmarked for the benefit of 1.5 crore beneficiaries.
He added, OMCs have procured ethanol to the tune of Rs. 250 core providing relief to the farmers of Bihar and making probation a success in the state of Bihar. He urged the state government to provide necessary support in land acquisition for infrastructure development in the state. He also sought to support the civil society to supervise and oversee the implementation of the PMUY. A special toll free number for Bihar will be operationalised for the benefit of beneficiaries.
While dwelling on the steps taken to expand the coverage of oil and gas sector in Bihar, he said that capacity augmentation of existing LPG pipeline from Paradip to Haldia and to Durgapur and extension of Pipeline from Durgapur to Muzzafarpur via Banka, Patna and Baruni is envisaged. Besides these two petroleum product pipelines, Patna to Motihari and Motihari to Raxaul is also planned.
He added that Baurani refinery expansion and capacity augmentation from 6 MMTPA to 9 MMPTA is also planned. A Biturox plant and revamping of Coker plant has also been sanctioned. GAIL is planning a pipe line from Jagadishpur- Phulpur- Haldia route, in which Bihar will be a major beneficiary with approximately 450 Kms of pipeline inside Bihar. Similarly IOCL is laying 28 KM pipeline from Raxaul to Amlekhganj in Nepal for carrying petroleum products.
Distinguished speakers, in their addresses, emphasized on the major change that PMUY would bring to the lifestyles of women from the BPL families. They praised the visionary leadership of Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi in recognizing and addressing the problems faced by women.
Earlier, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Government of India had launched the ‘Give It Up' campaign on 27th March 2015, encouraging ‘well-to-do' families to give up their subsidy on LPG connection. In little over a 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, less –privileged homes.
