<span style="color: #222222;">Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas  Dharmendra Pradhan today handed over the Seven Croreth LPG connection under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, PMUY. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Under the scheme, deposit free LPG connection is provided to a poor household and the connection is released in the name of an adult woman. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The scheme was launched on 1st May, 2016 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with an initial target of five crores, which was later revised upward to eight crores connections.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The Seven Croreth connection has been released within just 34 months of the scheme's launch. Nearly 69 thousand connections are being released per day.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Nearly 42 per cent of the total beneficiaries belong to the SCs and STs. As per the recent data, 82 per cent PMUY beneficiaries are going for refilling their cylinder and average refilling is about 6.5 cylinders per beneficiary.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Congratulating the women beneficiaries, Mr Pradhan said that they have been the main driving force behind the accomplishment. He said, Government has not only provided connection to the poor, but also distributed happiness to them. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The scheme was launched with the identification from the Socio Economic and Caste Census, but was subsequently expanded to cover all the poor of the country.  </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Mr Pradhan said the Government followed the principle of Sabka Sath Sabka Vikas and all the poor of the country are now eligible to get PMUY connection. Mr Pradhan said that 6800 new distributorships have been given to strengthen rural LPG supply chain.</span><br />''