Question

What is the effect of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana on PPC of India?

Answer 1

Recently central government has launched its ambitious programme The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) to provide subsidised liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) connections to 50 million poor families. It is a three year programme with cost of 8000 crore, which will be entirely borne by central government.

Benefits of the scheme-

Connections under new scheme will allocated in the name of women members of poor households, which will be genuine step towards women empowerment.

About 700 million people in India have been using traditional cooking fuels like firewood, charcoal and kerosene etc and these emits more smokes which severally affects the health of women households. Using LPG will helps to improve the quality of life of poor households.

Traditional cooking fuels also cause the air pollution, use of LPG will help to reduce the air pollution. Hence LPG is also environment friendly.

Challenges-

In the absence of proper and authenticated data on BPL population, identification of poor households for allotment of free LPG connection is biggest challenge.

Usage of Socio-Economic Caste Census data may be get misused by well-offs or it may remain poorly targeted.

As Aadhaar-based direct benefits transfer (DBT) system is facing legal battle in courts, hence transferring subsidies directly to oil companies may encourage leakages in the system by vested interest groups.

It will bear significant cost to the exchequer, which creates apprehensions on future direction of LPG pricing and reform of subsidies.

Suggestions-

To realise the true benefits of ambitious scheme government must build proper mechanism to identify the deserving beneficiaries.

Government should strengthen distribution channels and ensure supply of LPG and cylinders as per planned in the programme.

As it bears substantial cost on exchequer, to balance it, the government must withdraw subsidies on cooking gas for the economically well-off sections.

Conclusion-

PMUY is an historic opportunity to provide LPG connections to truly deserving ones. It will helps in reducing the pollution and improving the quality of life of poor households. Hence Government must implement this programme with letter and spirit.