Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) was launched today in Srinagar for the state of Jammu & Kashmir by Chief Minister of J&K, Ms Mehbooba Mufti along with Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan in the presence of Minister of State, PMO, Dr. Jitendra Singh, Dy. Chief Minister of J&K, Dr. Nirmal Singh, Minister for FCS & CA J&K, Shri Chowdhary Zulfikar Ali, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, Shri Nazir Ahmed Fiaz and Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, Shri Mir Mohammed.This marks another step in the direction of providing LPG connections to 5 crore families who are Below Poverty Line (BPL). As a symbolic launch of the PMUY, women from BPL families were handed over connections during the function by the Chief Minister of J&K and Minister for Petroleum.Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, which was launched by the Prime Minister on 1st May 2016 at Ballia (Uttar Pradesh), is a scheme to provide clean cooking fuel to the women belonging to the ‘Below Poverty Line’ (BPL) households across the country. Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) 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. Providing LPG connections to BPL households will ensure universal coverage of cooking gas in the country. The scheme of providing clean cooking fuel will also reduce drudgery and the time spent on cooking and will also provide employment for rural youth in the supply chain of cooking gas.Shri Pradhan in his address said that 1 lakh LPG connections will be released in the next 15 days. He said that the central government has released 2 lakh connections during the last 2 years in J&K vis a vis 5 Lakh connections released during the previous 8 years in J&K by the previous governments. He added that there are 4 LPG bottling plants in the state and another LPG plant at Kargil will be put up and also to increase the capacity of Leh LPG plant.PMUY scheme provides assistance of Rs. 1600/- to the woman beneficiary, comprising security deposit of Domestic cylinder & pressure regulator; Suraksha hose; Domestic gas consumer card and installation charges.