The government today approved enhancing the number of beneficiaries under the Ujjwala Yojana for receiving deposit-free new cooking gas connection to 8 crore with an additional allocation of Rs 4,800 crore.
Under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, launched in May 2016, cash assistance is given to the beneficiaries to get a deposit-free new LPG connection.
"The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved to enhance the target of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) from five crore to eight crore with an additional allocation of Rs 4,800 crore," said an official statement.
The decision comes in the wake of huge response to PMUY from the women, particularly in rural areas and to cover such households not having LPG connection, it said.
"The revised target of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) will be achieved by 2020," it added.
The release further said that while expanding the target, the government has also addressed the practical difficulty faced in PMUY implementation to ensure genuinely poor households left out of Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC) list are also included in the scheme.
"The government does not only announce schemes but is committed to their time-bound implementation," the statement said.
Under the PMUY, the original target was to release 3 crore connections by the end of 2017-18, but as a "result of efficient scheme implementation and monitoring", more than 3.35 crore connections have been released till date across all states/UTs, largely benefiting SC/ST communities, it said.
In all, more than 4.65 crore applications have been received.
Initial allocation for PMUY was Rs 8,000 crore.
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