The government has been able to achieve the full year’s target of providing 1.5 crore LPG connections under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) within eight months. According to the Ministry for Petroleum & Natural Gas statement, the top five States with maximum connections are UP (46 lakh), West Bengal (19 lakh), Bihar (19 lakh), Madhya Pradesh (17 lakh) and Rajasthan (14 lakh). These States constitutes nearly 75 per cent of the total connections released.
The government had allocated ₹8,000 crore in the Union Budget 2016.
According to data released from the Ministry, the national LPG coverage increased from 61 per cent on January 1, 2016 to 70 per cent on December 1, 2016. As per the scheme, an adult woman member of a BPL family identified through Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) data is given a deposit-free LPG connection with financial assistance of ₹1,600 per connection.
The government statement noted that 14 States/UTs, having LPG coverage less than the national average, hilly States of J&K, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and all North-East States are identified as priority states for implementing the scheme.