The report of the Parliamentary Committee on Petroleum

Key Facts

• A parliamentary committee has said only three States and five Union Territories have become kerosene­free, though the government last September met the target of eight crores LPG connections under the  Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana.
• The report of the Parliamentary Committee on Petroleum, which was tabled last week, points to the gap between the continuing use of kerosene and the claim of 97% LPG coverage nationwide. The committee is headed by BJP member Ramesh Bidhuri. 
• The allocation for the scheme has been cut down by 58% from ₹2,724 crores during 2019­20 to ₹1,118 crores during 2020­21. The Petroleum Ministry informed the committee that the government had met the target on September 7, 2019, and 96.9% coverage had been achieved nationwide, except in Jammu and Kashmir. The Ministry said the scheme was no longer running, and the present allocation was meant to meet the arrears in the reimbursement of expenditure
• The 97% coverage has been calculated based on the number of households it stands at 2,850.5 lakh as on February 1 this year and the domestic LPG consumers, at 2,772.2 lakh
• The committee was upset at the closure of the scheme and said there was still a lot of ground to cover. There are poor households in the general category in urban and semi­urban localities that also need to be covered. The committee, therefore, recommends that the scheme be extended to poor households in urban and semi­urban slum areas and achieve a higher LPG coverage of the population by providing connections to households that do not have LPG
• At the same time, the committee said, large segments of people in various States still depended on kerosene for cooking and household lighting. The Ministry has justified the low number of ‘kerosene­free’ States and Union Territories, saying their consent is critical. Karnataka, Telangana, Haryana, Nagaland, Bihar, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, and Puducherry have gone for a voluntary cut.
• Only three States Haryana, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh — and the Union Territories of Delhi, Chandigarh, Daman & Diu, Dadar & Nagar Haveli, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, and Puducherry have become kerosene­free.

Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana

• Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) was launched by Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi on 1 May 2016 to distribute 50 million LPG connections to women of BPL families. A budgetary allocation of ₹800 billion was made for the scheme. In the first year of its launch, the connections distributed were 22 million against the target of 15 million. As of 23 October 2017, 30 million connections were distributed, 44% of which were given to families belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. The number crossed 58 million by December 2018. In the 2018 Union Budget of India, its scope was widened to include 80 million poor households. 21,000 awareness camps were conducted by oil marketing companies (OMC). The scheme led to an increase in LPG consumption by 56% in 2019 as compared to 2014. The highly popular scheme has benefited over 14.6 million BPL families in Uttar Pradesh, 8.8 million in West Bengal, 8.5 million in Bihar, 7.1 million in Madhya Pradesh and 6.3 million in Rajasthan. However, while access to LPG gas stoves and cylinders has increased in the scheme, the use of LPG cylinders remains low.
• At the 107th Indian Science Congress held on January 2020 in Bengaluru, Narendra Modi declared that technology has helped India "in recognizing the 8 crore women who were still using coal or wood for cooking" and also "in understanding how many new distribution centers must be built, via the help of technology".

Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana Need

• In India, the poor have limited access to cooking gas (LPG). The spread of LPG cylinders has been predominantly in the urban and semi-urban areas with coverage mostly in the middle class and affluent households. But there are serious health hazards associated with cooking based on fossil fuels. According to WHO estimates, about 5 lakh deaths in India alone due to unclean cooking fuels. Most of these premature deaths were due to non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lung cancer. Indoor air pollution is also responsible for a significant number of acute respiratory illnesses in young children. According to experts, having an open fire in the kitchen is like burning 400 cigarettes an hour.
• Providing LPG connections to BPL households will ensure universal coverage of cooking gas in the country. This measure will empower women and protect their health. It will reduce drudgery and the time spent on cooking. It will also provide employment for rural youth in the supply chain of cooking gas.

Target beneficiaries

• Under the scheme, an adult woman belonging to a poor family not having an LPG connection in her household is an eligible beneficiary under the expanded scheme.
• The release of LPG connection under this Scheme shall be in the name of the women belonging to the BPL family.
• Initially, the Government covered the following categories under the Scheme:-
• Beneficiaries listed in the SECC 2011 list
• All SC/STs households beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana(PMAY) (Gramin)
• Antyoday Anna Yojana (AAY)
• Forest dwellers
• Most Backward Classes (MBC)
• Tea & Ex-Tea Garden Tribes
• People residing in Islands
• People residing in river islands

Source: The Hindu