New Delhi, July 30: Emphasising that the energy sector will play a huge role in accelerating India's progress over the next 25 years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday urged states and union territories to clear pending power dues as soon as possible.

Addressing the 'Ujjwal Bharat Ujjwal Bhavishya - Power @2047' programme, the Prime Minister said, "Eight years ago, we took the initiative to transform every part of the country's power sector. To improve the power system, work was done simultaneously in four different directions - generation, transmission, distribution and connection." PM Narendra Modi To Launch Revamped Power Distribution Scheme on July 30.

"In the last 8 years, about 1 lakh 70 thousand MW power generation capacity has been added in the country. 'One Nation One Power Grid' has become the power of the country today. About 1 lakh 70 thousand circuit kilometer transmission lines have been laid to connect the entire country," said the prime minister.

"We had resolved to create 175 GW of renewable energy capacity by the completion of 75 years of independence. Today, we have come close to this goal. So far, about 170 GW capacity has been installed from non-fossil sources," said PM Modi

"Today, India is in the top 4-5 countries of the world in terms of installed solar capacity. Many of the world's largest solar power plants are in India today. Energy and power sectors will play a huge role in accelerating India's progress in the next 25 years. About 1.70 lakh MW of electricity generation capacity added in the country in the last 8 years," he said.

Highlighting these developments, the prime minister requested "states whose dues are pending, to clear them as soon as possible." Notably, Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 1, 2016, to distribute 50 million LPG connections to women of Below Poverty Line families.

In May 2016, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MOPNG), introduced the 'Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana' (PMUY) as a flagship scheme with an objective to make clean cooking fuel such as LPG available to rural and deprived households which were otherwise using traditional cooking fuels such as firewood, coal, cow-dung cakes etc. Usage of traditional cooking fuels had detrimental impacts on the health of rural women as well as on the environment.

The target under the scheme was to release 8 crore LPG connections to the deprived households by March 2020. On September 7, 2019, the Prime Minister handed over the 8th crore LPG connection in Aurangabad, Maharashtra.

The release of 8 crore LPG connections under the scheme has also helped in increasing the LPG coverage from 62 per cent on May 1, 2016 to 99.8 per cent as on April 1, 2021.

Under the Union Budget for FY 21-22, provision for release of an additional 1 crore LPG connections under the PMUY scheme has been made. In this phase, a special facility has been given to migrant families.

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