Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day speech highlighted the achievement of his government in delivering electricity and cooking energy to the deprived.
He has promised time bound delivery of five crore LPG connections to the poor. Already, fifty lakh connections were given in the last 100 days.
In the last few years, village electrificaiton is going at rapid pace. “Out of 18,000 villages, more than 10,000 villages have been electrified and I have been told they are with us, watching this celebration of Independence Day.” – Modi has elaborated in his speech.
On LPG, Government’s target is to give five crore connections in three years. The scheme of Prime Minister Ujjwala Yojana has been already in progress for the delivery of LPG connections. India has nearly 14 crore LPG connections for cooking purposes and the LPG subsidy under the DBT scheme is one of the largest in the world.
Though LPG subsidy is the leading transfer item under fuel subsidies, a large section of the country predominantly the BPL people, doesn’t have access to clean and affordable energy.
Under the PM Ujjwala Yojana connections are provided to the women household member. The government has allocated Rs 8000 crore for financing the programme.
The 70th Independence Day speech by Modi was largely devoid of any major development programme and the renewed promise of LPG connections became the star of the day.
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