Govt promises 10 crore LPG connections by 2019

Focussing on its rural reach programme, the Centre on Monday decided to provide 10-crore new cooking gas connections in the next three years.

The government also said there will be at least one LPG distributor in each block of the country by 2019.

The move comes within a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi committed to provide 5-crore LPG connections to rural women free of cost.

“Oil marketing companies (OMCs) are continuously engaged in increasing the penetration of LPG in rural areas by commissioning new LPG distributorship… Public sector OMCs aim to increase the national LPG coverage to 75% with minimum 60% coverage at the state-level and at least one distributor in each block by 2019,” Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told the Lok Sabha.

Rural areas

To a question on whether there has been any decline in the usage of solid fuels in rural areas in the wake of government’s campaign for clean fuel, he said the LPG coverage has been going up in rural areas in the last few years.

“The dependence of rural population on solid fuels is coming down every year.

LPG coverage

“The overall LPG coverage in the country (i.e. ratio of number of active consumers and number of households) is 61.9 per cent wherein rural LPG coverage is 35.6 per cent as on April 1, 2016,” the minister said.