(The Pioneer)
Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, the flagship scheme of National Democratic Alliance government for subsidised LPG connection, coupled with Saubhagya Scheme providing free domestic power connections in rural areas to the poor have unleashed a silent revolution across Uttar Pradesh, leading to a sharp rise in power consumption and LPG as medium of cooking food. The Ujjwala Yojana was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Ballia (eastern UP) on May 1, 2016.
An estimated 59 per cent of rural households in the state relied on grid power as the primary source of lighting in 2018. This was a near three-fold increase since 2015. This was found during a study by Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW). The council published its findings from the second round of India’s largest multi-dimensional energy access survey on Monday.
The proportion of rural households using kerosene as a primary source of lighting also plummeted from 72 to 30 per cent over the last three years. The study found that nearly 20 per cent unelectrified households in the state —- highest among six states covered in the survey —- preferred to remain unelectrified even if they received connections with no upfront cost. The reasons for refusing free connections can be inability to afford power consumption, unwillingness to pay high-value in irregular lumpsum bills, prevailing illegal connections or unreliable power supply. Further, 64 per cent of rural households in the state used LPG for cooking in 2018, up from 33 per cent in 2015. Rural households relying on LPG as primary fuel increased from 17 per cent in 2015 to 37 per cent in 2018.
