Close to 80% Indian households now have LPG access: Report

Europe, Spain, View Of Lorry Carrying LPG Gas Cylinders Driving On Highway

Moneycontrol News
Close to 80 percent of the Indian households use cooking gas in the country as compared to the 56 percent just three years ago.

According to an Economic Times report, state-run companies are rushing to meet the targets set by the Modi government. As many as seven crore LPG customers were added to the network.

The government aims to add three crore new customers 2016-17 and 2017-18 followed by four crore in 2018-19

Poor households were encouraged to wean themselves off from using traditional methods such as firewood by making subscription easier and using the official subsidy scheme to tap into poor households.

Between April and December 2017, West Bengal received 29 lakh connections, Bihar got 26.36 lakh connections and Uttar Pradesh got 26.32 lakh fresh connections. The number of connections established during this period was 2.27 crore connections.

The southern states have maximum coverage at 94 percent, the north with 89 percent, the west with 73 percent, the east with 62 percent and the northeast 57 percent averaging lower.

Goa has a 137 percent coverage, Delhi has 126 percent and Punjab has 123 percent coverage. The numbers are inflated above 100 percent as they are based on the 2011 census data, which makes it at a lower population base. The population has since increased, which would bring it within 100 percent.

The lowest in the list are Jharkhand with a 44 percent coverage, Odisha at 51.5 percent, Bihar at 56 percent and Chhattisgarh with 57 percent figure.

Close to 70 lakh of these connections are attributed to funding as part of the corporate social responsibility of the state-run oil companies.

The central government’s Ujjwala scheme, has facilitated 3.2 crore new connections to poor families up and until its inception in 2016 to December 2017.