Modi 2.0: Govt plans to launch projects to mark 100 days in office

Ujjwala to meet 80-million mark six months in advance; ministers to be in states to highlight the Centre's achievements

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has planned a series of events from Saturday to mark its 100 days in office. The focus would be on poll-bound Maharashtra where several big-ticket projects would be inaugurated, mostly by Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi.

The PM would distribute liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) connections to beneficiaries of the government’s flagship social sector scheme the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, or Ujjwala, in Aurangabad on Saturday, according to a senior Bharat Petroleum Corporation official.

The event would mark the distribution of 80 million cooking gas connections under the scheme, a target that would be achieved six months ahead of the deadline of March 2020.

Also, instructions have been issued to all Cabinet ministers and senior functionaries to hold events highlighting the government’s targets and goals in their constituencies and native places. Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan would be in Patna, while Power Minister R K Singh would address events in Bihar’s Ara.

On Saturday, Modi would attend an event organised by the Maharashtra State Rural Livelihoods Mission in Aurangabad and also lay the foundation stone for a stretch of the Mumbai-Delhi Industrial Corridor. Planned to be built at the cost of $90 billion, the corridor connects the country’s financial hub Mumbai to its capital New Delhi, and will run through Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

On the same day, the PM would reportedly be part of ground breaking ceremonies of various projects in Mumbai, such as the Metro Bhawan, being developed by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, the Chunabhatti-BKC overpass and others. In Nagpur, he would dedicate a part of the Metro project to the nation.

On September 11, Modi would launch a scheme to eradicate foot-and-mouth diseases among cattle in the next five years, with an allocation of over Rs 13,000 crore.

The next day, he is set to formally launch the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Pension Yojana (a pension scheme for farmers), which would be kick-started with an initial enrollment of more than 1 million farmers. The target is to enroll around 80 million farmers in the next few years.

Ujjwala, a scheme to provide free LPG connections to the poor, was instrumental in raising the country’s overall LPG penetration to around 95 per cent, from 62 per cent in 2016. After taking charge on May 30, the government had lined up goals across sectors for 100 days, of which the LPG connection was a key target.

Launched in May 2016 in Uttar Pradesh’s Balia, Ujjawala had an initial target 50 million, which was also achieved eight months ahead of schedule in August 2018. Later, the scheme got extended to 80 million and all-poor households, also extending the overall budgetary support to Rs 12,800 crore.

To increase the number of refills under the scheme, the government is aggressively pushing for a swap option of 5 kilogram (kg) cooking gas cylinder against normal 14.2 kg cylinders. Based on an estimate by oil marketing companies, of the sales of 13,29,806 refills of 5 kg since its pan-Indian inception, around 1,22,332 were sold during the first week of August this year.

As of Thursday, the number of beneficiaries under Ujjwala stood at 79.7 million, of the 268 million LPG consumers in the country. Among the companies, Indian Oil Corporation has the maximum number of 126 million consumers, followed by 74 million by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and 68 million by Bharat Petroleum Corporation.  In 2018-19, the country’s LPG production stood at 12.8 million tonne (mt), while its consumption stood at 24.9 mt.