The News Services Division brings glimpses of &quot;The Year that was&quot; in our Special Series Year Ender.&nbsp;<br />”&nbsp;<br />”The NDA government’s Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) has acted as one of the biggest catalyst of socio-economic change in the status of women in the country.<br />”&nbsp;<br />”Launched in May 2016, the Ujjwala Yojana had achieved its revised target of providing eight crore LPG connections to poor nearly seven months ahead in September last year.<br />”&nbsp;<br />”Addressing a gathering in Maharashtra on the completion of the target in September 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said the scheme is helping millions of women in India.<br />”&nbsp;<br />”<b>AIR correspondent reports,&nbsp;</b>the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana aims at providing clean-cooking fuel to the poor households, which are otherwise vulnerable to various health hazards associated with indoor air pollution and bringing in qualitative changes in the living standards.<br />”&nbsp;<br />”Under this flagship scheme, free LPG connection is being provided in the name of an adult woman member of a poor family.<br />”&nbsp;<br />”So far, over 8.3 crore LPG connections have been released.<br />”&nbsp;<br />”During this COVID-19 pandemic, this scheme has provided a big relief to the poor as the government has given free of cost LPG refills for Ujjwala consumers for a period of three months.<br />”&nbsp;<br />”Over Rs. 9709 crore were transferred directly into the bank accounts of Ujjwala beneficiaries during April to June this year and around 12 crore LPG cylinders were delivered.<br />”&nbsp;<br />”To rationalize LPG subsidy, the government has introduced well targeted system of subsidy delivery to the consumers through PAHAL.<br />”&nbsp;<br />”This initiative has helped in identifying ghost accounts, multiple accounts and inactive accounts.<br />”&nbsp;<br />”Under PAHAL till now, around 27 crore beneficiaries have been given subsidy of over one lakh 36 thousand crore rupees through Direct Benefit Transfer.&nbsp;<br />”&nbsp;<br />”<span style="color: #222222;">As a measure towards empowerment of poor women who are bereft of access to clean cooking gas, Ujjwala Yojana is enabling social change in the country.</span><br />