The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) introduced by the Central Government has complemented the existing high penetration of the domestic LPG users, according to those in the industry.
A senior official at an oil company told The Hindu that the Central Government scheme particularly helped the rural areas for connectivity as Coimbatore city was already well-covered in terms of LPG connections. “Whatever was left [out], I think Ujjwala scheme has more or less covered,” the official said.
Industry sources said that Coimbatore was already a “saturated market” in terms of LPG connections because of the schemes introduced by the State governments to increase LPG connections since 2006 for the below poverty line (BPL) households. Observing that the impact of the Ujjwala scheme has been minimal, sources said that takers are very less for this scheme because of the existing connections.
The impact of Ujjwala scheme in southern India has been minimal because of Free BPL Connection Scheme in Tamil Nadu and Deepam Scheme in Andhra Pradesh, sources added.
According to the website of PMUY, Tamil Nadu has over 31.45 lakh LPG connections under this scheme as of April 24. The scheme, which was initiated by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May 2016, has now ensured more than 7.19 crore LPG connections to BPL families, according to the website.
The Hindu had reported on February 12 that the LPG coverage in the State has touched 97.9% of the populaton with the additional connections under the Ujjwala scheme, which translates to 2.02 crore consumers.