New Delhi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday highlighted that the central government has strengthened the power sector by removing many previous shortcomings in the energy sector.

Addressing the 'Ujjwal Bharat Ujjwal Bhavishya - Power @2047' programme, the Prime Minister said, "In today's times, no one can imagine life without electricity. It is a matter of great satisfaction for me that in the last few years, we have strengthened the power sector by removing many previous shortcomings in the energy sector." "You will remember that even after 70 years of independence, electricity could not reach 18,000 villages of the country.

In today's new India, work is being done in this direction so that people can generate electricity in villages," the Prime Minister said. Notably, Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 1, 2016, to distribute 50 million LPG connections to women of Below Poverty Line families.

In May 2016, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MOPNG), introduced the 'Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana' (PMUY) as a flagship scheme with an objective to make clean cooking fuel such as LPG available to rural and deprived households which were otherwise using traditional cooking fuels such as firewood, coal, cow-dung cakes etc. Usage of traditional cooking fuels had detrimental impacts on the health of rural women as well as on the environment.

The target under the scheme was to release 8 crore LPG connections to the deprived households by March 2020. On September 7, 2019, the Prime Minister handed over the 8th crore LPG connection in Aurangabad, Maharashtra.

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The release of 8 crore LPG connections under the scheme has also helped in increasing the LPG coverage from 62 per cent on May 1, 2016 to 99.8 per cent as on April 1, 2021. Under the Union Budget for FY 21-22, provision for release of an additional 1 crore LPG connections under the PMUY scheme has been made. In this phase, a special facility has been given to migrant families.