Urgent need to produce and use energy in a sustainable way: Hardeep S Puri

Noting the relevance of the theme of World LPG Week 2022, the Minister said that the theme -- Humanising Energy - is apt as energy has a direct impact on human wellbeing and there is an urgent need to produce and use energy in a sustainable way, while ensuring affordability and availability to everyone. World LPG Week 2022 is being held from November 14 to 18, 2022, at India Expo Mart (IEML), Greater Noida.

Hardeep S Puri said, "LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) can effectively address several Sustainable Development Goals of the UN such as good health and well being (Ujjwala scheme), gender equality (women empowerment in villages through socio-economic transformation - Ujjwala), affordable and clean energy, industry, innovation and infrastructure, climate action, Hardeep S Puri, the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Minister of Housing & Urban Affairs, said.

Addressing the gathering at World LPG Week 2022, he said that encouraging innovations in the LPG energy mix, efficiency, conservation, Bio LPG, Synthetic LPG etc would facilitate favourable shift/growth and also help in meeting the climate change goals.

Talking about the scenario prior to the launch of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, the Minister said that the availability of clean cooking fuel in the country was a major challenge for rural households in India for many years. Though LPG was the major source of cooking energy in urban India, a large proportion of households still had to depend on biomass such as firewood, dung, crop residue and coal/charcoal for their cooking needs, he added.

Benefitting more than 9.55 crore households in India, the PMUY scheme has become a global role model for India's success story in ensuring energy access, and energy justice while achieving climate change and women empowerment goals, added the Minister.

Referring to the Ujjwala 2.0 launched to achieve complete LPG saturation and for benefit of left-out people in need, Hardeep S Puri stated that along with a deposit-free LPG connection, Ujjwala 2.0 provides first refill and hotplate free of cost to the beneficiaries.

The target of releasing another One Crore LPG connection under Ujjwala 2.0 was achieved on January 31, 2022, the minister said, adding that PM Ujjwala Yojana removed the entry barrier to the adoption of LPG by poor households.

Lauding the achievements under PMUY, the Minister said that the scheme not only achieved women empowerment and reduced health hazards, but also boosted the manufacturing sector by increasing consumption of cylinders, stoves, regulators, hose pipes, etc. The achievements of the scheme and its far-reaching impact on households, gender roles, women's entrepreneurship and the energy economy are a matter of academic research.

The Minister also talked about the transformation brought by DBT-Pahal programme that not only streamlined and modernised the LPG subsidy mechanism with direct transfer of subsidy into beneficiary bank accounts but also helped in weeding out 4.49 crore dummy LPG connections, saving the national exchequer Rs 71,301 crore. (ANI)