CCEA approved Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana

On 10 March 2016, The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana.
•    The scheme seeks to provide free LPG connections to women from below poverty line (BPL) households
•    Under the scheme, a financial support of 1600 rupees will be provided for each LPG connection to the BPL households.
•    The identification of eligible BPL families will be made in consultation with the State Governments and the Union Territories.
•    This will benefit about 1 crore 50 lakh households below the poverty line in 2016-17.
•    It will be implemented at an estimated cost of 8000 crore rupees over three years between April 2016 and March 2019 to cover 5 crore BPL households.
•    There are serious health hazards associated with cooking based on fossil fuels. 
•    According to an estimate of the World Health Organisation (WHO), about 5 lakh deaths in India alone occur due to unclean cooking fuels.
•    Most of these premature deaths were due to non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer.