Clean Cooking Ministerial: Sharing India’s success story, Hardeep Puri says “easily doable”

Sharing India’s success story of ensuring clean cooking fuel reaches every household in the country through the flagship PM Ujjwala Scheme, Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Puri affirmed that it was easily doable by others.

Puri made the remarks on Wednesday at the “Clean Cooking Ministerial at the third edition of India Energy Week 2025, which was attended by ministers from several energy-producing countries.

“This is something that is easily doable,” Puri said, after sharing the success story of India, driven by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration.

“I see no reason why you cannot take LPG — the product of a refinery, to every citizen, or through biofuels cooktops or in some other ways, I think it is something within the realm of what I call the doable in a short time,” the minister supplemented.

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi took over, the total number of LPG connections in India was 14 crore as against its population of 1.4 billion, Puri said. Today, the number of LPG connections is around 33 crore.

About 10.33 crore Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) free gas connections have been provided across the country since its launch in May 2016, petroleum and natural gas minister Hardeep Puri informed Lok Sabha last week. Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) was launched to provide deposit-free LPG connections to adult women from poor households.

“So each connection, let’s say services a household of four or five people. It means you have a situation in which the entire population has LPG, plus we have a pipeline, which we send, we send natural gas, which is about 25-30 per cent cheaper,” Puri said.

Puri said India not only provided LPG connections to its people but also ensured that the economically weaker sections get them at subsidised rates.

To make LPG more affordable to PMUY consumers and ensure sustained usage of LPG by them, the government started a targeted subsidy of Rs 200 per 14.2 kg cylinder for up to 12 refills per annum in May 2022. In October 2023, the government increased the targeted subsidy to Rs 300 per 14.2 kg cylinder. LPG cylinders are currently selling at Rs 503 per cylinder (in Delhi).

The Union Minister said that the real story in India is that LPG costs not more than 7 cents in a day if one falls under the economically weaker section. For people for falling in the non-economically weaker section, he said it costs 15 cents a day.

“In other words, clean cooking fuel is available almost to everyone, and it’s not an issue,” he added.

On the contrary, talking about his student days, the minister said how one had to run from pillar to post to get an LPG connection.

“When I was at the university, to get a cylinder of LPG, liquefied petroleum gas…you required a lot of connections. You are required to know people… If you had a recommendation, you could get an LPG cylinder,” he claimed.

India has taken a huge stride in making cooking fuel clean and sustainable through its PM Ujjwala Yojana. Usage of traditional cooking fuels had detrimental impacts on the health of rural women as well as on the environment.