The Pradhan Mantri Ujjawala Yojana (PMUY) was launched today at Jammu by Mohtarma Mehbooba Mufti, Hon'ble Chief Minister, Jammu & Kashmir in the presence of Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Hon’ble Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India.Dr. Jitendra Singh, Hon’ble Minister of State (IC), DoNER, MoS (Prime Minister Office; Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions; Department of Atomic Energy and Department of Space), Government of India, Dr. Nirmal Singh, Hon'ble Deputy Chief Minister, Jammu & Kashmir, Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali, Hon'ble Minister for Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Jammu & Kashmir, Shri Ajay Nanda, Hon'ble Minister of State for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Jammu & Kashmir, Shri Jugal Kishore, Hon’ble Member of Parliament, Jammu graced the occasion. Other distinguished guests included Members of Jammu & Kashmir 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 formal launch of the PMUY.
In her address, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir, Mohtarma Mehbooba Mufti 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. She thanked Hon'ble Prime minister Shri Narendra Modi for his vision for women empowerment saying that he understood their travails since he himself has witnessed these problems first hand. She also thanked Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Hon’ble Minister of State (Independent Charge), MoP&NG for accepting her suggestion of commencing this scheme in Jammu & Kashmir and for giving assurance for extending full support by Government of India in maintaining uninterrupted oil and gas supplies in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Addressing the large gathering, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Hon’ble Minister of State (I/C), MoPNG explained the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana and said 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. This scheme aims at providing, 5 Cr LPG connections to BPL households pan India in 3 years. Over the next three years, Rs. 8000 crore will be provided by Govt. of India.
Shri Pradhan further added that the Government aims to add to 140 new distributorships in Jammu and Kashmir in addition to the existing 236 distributorships as also add around 7 lakh new connections in the state of Jammu & Kashmir in three years. This will increase the present LPG connections from 17 lakhs to around 24 lakhs in the State. He stressed that enumeration 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 26.5% in the LPG penetration in the state of Jammu & Kashmir during last two years and within next two years the aim would be to cover 100% household of Jammu & Kashmir. He also assured the State Government of uninterrupted POL supplies through capacity augmentation of existing Leh Bottling plant and setting up a LPG bottling plant at Kargil.Distinguished speakers, in their addresses, emphasized 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 27th 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 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.