Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said the Ministry for Petroleum & Natural Gas should not ignore the 5-kg LPG cylinder category and continue to focus on it.

Speaking at an event to mark the handing over of the 5-croreth LPG connection under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), Mahajan said, even a 5-kg cylinder has a market and sometimes can work as an alternative.

The Centre had launched the PMUY on May 1, 2016. The scheme offers a deferred upfront payment for new connections to the socially and economically weaker sections. Under the scheme, 5 crore BPL households were targeted for providing the deposit-free LPG connections by March 31, 2019. But, this target has been achieved within 28 months of the scheme’s launch.

An official statement said, “In the current year, considering the success of the scheme, its target was revised to 8 crore with budgetary allocation of ₹12,800 crore.”

“Uttar Pradesh (87 lakh), West Bengal (67 lakh), Bihar (61 lakh), Madhya Pradesh (45 lakh), Rajasthan (37 lakh) and Odisha (30 lakh) accounted for nearly 65 per cent of the connections provided and 47 per cent of the beneficiaries are from the weaker sections of the society,” the statement added.