KUMAR VIKRAM

New Delhi, March 12,2023: While only 49.8 per cent of rural households use clean fuel as a primary source of energy for cooking, the latest government data disclosed that there are many states, including Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand where even less than 30 per cent of the households in rural areas use clean fuel for cooking.

Multiple Indicator Survey (MIS) conducted by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) showed that 63.1 per cent of households were using clean fuel as primary source of energy for cooking. The data showed a substantial difference in the rural and urban areas in use of clean fuel as 49.8 per cent households in rural and 92 per cent in urban areas use clean fuel as the primary source of energy for cooking.

The state-wise data showed that only 15.2 per cent of rural households in Chhattisgarh, 24.2 per cent in rural households in Madhya Pradesh, 24.6 per cent rural households in Jharkhand and 29.8 per cent in Rajasthan use clean fuel as a primary source of energy for cooking purposes.

On the contrary many states like Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka scored better with 83.4 per cent, 81.3 and 86.6 per cent of the rural households using clean fuel as a primary source of energy for cooking.

Bihar performed better than Uttar Pradesh in this respect as 50 per cent and 44.1 per cent rural households use clean fuel for cooking.

Primary source of energy has been defined as that source of energy which the household uses the majority of time. Clean fuel for cooking, included LPG, other natural gas, gobar gas, other biogas, electricity (including generated by solar/ wind power generators) and solar cooker.

The survey was initially planned to be conducted during the period January-December, 2020, but the field work was extended till August 15, 2021, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. NSSO carried out the Multiple Indicator Survey (MIS) covering the entire country in its 78th round.

Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana(PMUY) was launched in May 2016 to release deposit free LPG connections in the name of adult women members of poor households across the country. The target to release eight crore connections under the PMUY Phase-I was achieved in September, 2019.

To cover the remaining poor households, PMUY phase-2 (Ujjwala 2.0) was launched in August 2021 with a target to release one crore additional PMUY connections, which was achieved in January 2022. Subsequently, the government decided to release 60 lakh more LPG connections under Ujjwala 2.0 and as on January 1, 2023, the target of 1.60 crore Ujjwala 2.0 connections has already been achieved.

During Covid-19 pandemic, as a pro-poor initiative, the government announced a scheme for providing upto 3 (three) free of cost LPG refills to Ujjwala beneficiaries from April 1, 2020 under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP).

Oil Marketing companies (OMCs) transferred Rs 9,670.41 crore to bank accounts of PMUY beneficiaries for buying LPG refills and PMUY beneficiaries availed 14.17 crore refills under the scheme. To further encourage the LPG usage by PMUY beneficiaries, from May 2022, the government started additional targeted subsidy of Rs 200 per 14.2 kg refill to PMUY consumers upto 12 refills in a year for FY 2022-23.

The Ministry has also informed that the Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies have suffered huge losses on sale of domestic LPG. To compensate for these losses, the government has recently approved a one-time compensation of Rs 22,000 crore to the OMCs.