Whats Next on the Ujjwala Scheme ?

The scheme had been virtually withdrawn in September 2019, although no formal declaration was made. Only three States — Haryana, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh — and five Union Territories, were declared kerosene-free at that time.

A 2021 report says that District Nodal Officers have highlighted the issue of PMUY beneficiaries finding it difficult to shell out around Rs 800 per cylinder in one go. This is even though the cylinder lasts them around three months, effectively costing around Rs 250 a month of LPG usage. The 5 kg LPG cylinder option may be more viable.

This was pointed out to the government by many agencies but it paid no heed during the initial years of the scheme. 

Currently on a per kg basis, the LPG in a 14.2 kg domestic cylinder costs around Rs 58 a kg. But it costs roughly Rs 94 a kg in a 5 kg cylinder. According to LPG dealers, the 5 kg cylinders were supposed to be for a migratory population like students, IT professionals , among others who can afford more expensive cooking gas. But it finds hardly any buyers nowadays. The higher cost per kg dissuades consumers that are anyway price sensitive. These issues are soon expected to be addressed by increasing availability of LPG in a 5 kg domestic cylinders that costs around Rs 60 per kg.

The three public sector oil marketing companies are waiting to recover around Rs 4,500 crore from existing PMUY beneficiaries.

PMUY beneficiaries buy LPG cylinders at full cost and oil companies recover the loaned amount from the subsidy that is accrued on domestic (14.2 kg) LPG cylinders.

This makes the cylinder unaffordable for a large chunk of beneficiaries who tend to use them sparingly. They often revert to biomass (firewood or cow dung which they get for no additional financial cost) for their primary cooking needs when LPG prices shoot up.

Audit Report of the Ujjwala scheme

My reading on fuels brought me to LPG, and to the present Government’s Ujjwala scheme which distributed crores of free LPG connections to the poor, starting from 2016. 

The end 2019 Government audit report of the scheme says that the targets of distribution were achieved. It reviews in detail the 5 crore target of the original Ujjwala scheme (called PMUY).

In order to rule out existing LPG connection in beneficiaries’ household, de-duplication was to be carried out on Aadhaar of all family members. Audit noticed that out of 3.78 crore LPG connections given under PMUY, 42 % were issued only on the basis of beneficiary Aadhaar which remained a deterrent in de-duplication.

PMUY envisaged release of LPG connection in the name of woman. However, 50% of the connections were released in the names of males. 

Test check in field audit revealed that 18 per cent of beneficiaries were those given benefits by LPG distributors to un-intended persons.

Encouraging the sustained usage of LPG remained a big challenge as only 3-4 refills each were availed of by beneficiary families per year. 

Many organizations had highlighted the importance of small 5 Kg cylinders to make PMUY successful considering high refill cost as a barrier to LPG usage. However, inadequacy of efforts was noticed in this direction as only 0.24 per cent of 3.78 crore beneficiary connections were provided 5 Kg cylinder connections.

24% of the beneficiaries had not even taken 3 refills over a year. This had hindered recovery of outstanding loan of ₹1235 crores.

The government audit report concluded that considering the audit findings on the basis of limited test check of sample cases, the entire LPG databases as well as physical records need to be scrutinized to identify and restrict release of connections to ineligible/male/minor beneficiaries/multiple connections.

The scheme had been virtually withdrawn in September 2019, although no formal declaration was made. Only three States — Haryana, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh — and five Union Territories, were declared kerosene-free at that time.

Is there really no else in India who can be PM ?

A friend wrote back in response to the farmer news : I do not see any one else who deserve PM position . At least man has a vision and trying hard . I think rather criticising, janta should take responsibility and help him moving country ahead. I am noticing he is trying hard but corruption within his party is hindering progress.

There are a few good members in congress but Rahul/ Sonia won’t let anybody take the position and, in fact, all these parties are so corrupt and without proper agenda, I will won’t be surprised if India end up in the same situation as th United States...

I wrote back to her : I dont take headlines to be the gospel truth. anything that takes my attention i read quite widely to appreciate the nuances behind it. everything i have read on Modi and his stewardship of Gujarat and then india, shows him to be focused only on publicity for himself. all his so-called reforms are vehicles for his publicity only.

I like Naidu in the opposition, Nitish too. And left leaders such as Prakash Karat and the Kerala Finance minister Thomas Issac. lots of congressmen sound good - Digvijay, Pilot and Scinida inlcuded. Rahul Gandhi sounds like he has tried to apply himself but i dont prefer him as pm - Nitish and Naidu have far more experience.

For e.g. Modi set up a programme in Gujarat where one day a week / fortnight / month (I forget the periodicity) he would take up particular cases in one department which had not been moved forward. he would discuss over video-link with all affected parties present. this gave good results and many stuck things moved forward.

But i noticed he did not set up the infrastructure to have ministers in his govt. do this or the secretaries in his government or the commissioners over their divisions. Given the way he has been such a self-promoting person, I am sure he would have been very offended if they had themselves used the same tools to solve problems of Gujarat. so he did not want to use these tools to move his state forward, but only for his personal wah-wahi !

Modi's image is plastered over every petrol pump in the country from the moment he launched the ujjwala programme to spend 1600 rs. distributing a LPG regulator and cylinder to rural households. do the billboards in petrol pumps help potential beneficiaries in any way ? NO - they are a publicity vehicle for modi. the programme is thus far a failure too as very few of the households have ordered a refill.