PM Modi pitches for greater LPG connectivity under Ujjwala Yojana 2.0

Hands over cooking gas connections at UP's Mahoba via video conferencing, hits out at earlier regimes in poll-bound state

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the second leg of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY 2.0) on Tuesday, by handing over Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG or cooking gas) connections at Mahoba Uttar Pradesh through video conferencing. Modi also interacted with beneficiaries of the Ujjwala scheme during the event.

“The second leg of the Ujjwala program will give greater prominence to self-certifications. This will help those who move out of their native places, in search for jobs, to get these deposit free LPG connections,” Modi said.

Focusing his speech on poll bound Uttar Pradesh (UP), he said, “People from all over UP and other states including Bundelkhand, migrated from village to city or to other states for work. There they face the problem of address proof. Now these workers from other places need not run from pillar to post for address proof. The Government has full faith in the honesty of the migrant workers. All one has to do is give a self-declaration of the address for getting a gas connection.”

“In the first phase of the scheme, 80 million poor, Dalit, deprived, backward and tribal families were given free gas connections,” he said, adding that “the benefit of this free gas connection was felt in the era of the Covid-19 pandemic when free cylinders were distributed to the needy.”

Modi said that there has been manifold expansion of LPG gas infrastructure in the country during the National Democratic Alliance regime post 2014. “During the last 6-7 years more than 11 thousand LPG distribution centres have been opened. In UP, the number of these centres increased to 4 thousand from 2 thousand in 2014,” he said.

Modi also said that piped natural gas (PNG) connectivity is being expanded in Uttar Pradesh. “It is a cheaper and more convenient alternative to LPG,” he said.

He highlighted efforts that are on to provide gas through pipes at a much larger scale. “Work is on to provide PNG in many districts of eastern India including in UP. In the first phase, a target has been to connect 1.2 million households in more than 50 districts of UP,” Modi said.

Bellowing the poll bugle and taking a jibe at the previous governments, Modi said, “Countrymen had to wait for decades for getting many basic amenities such as housing, electricity, water, toilet, gas, roads, hospitals and schools. Many of such things could have been addressed decades ago.”

He said that India is very near the 100 percent cooking gas connectivity coverage mark as the number of LPG connections has more than doubled in the last seven years. Modi also spoke about multiple initiatives of the central government during his address and emphasised that work on them has picked up pace post 2014.