The third act of India's biggest kitchen-fuel scheme is built around one criticism: connections reached villages faster than affordability did. Ujjwala 3.0 answers with consumption-linked subsidy — the first six refills of the year at enhanced rates for BPL beneficiaries, auto-credited on purchase, no application.
Who qualifies for a free connection: any household without an existing LPG connection, priority to SECC-listed and PM-JAY families. The two-crore target is the unreached remainder — the hardest, remotest last mile of a scheme that has taken clean-fuel coverage past 99 percent on connection terms.
The refill subsidy tapers with usage growth instead of cliff-cutting — the design detail that separates 3.0 from every previous version.
The structural bet is pipes: sixty districts will test rural piped gas where trunk lines already run, converting cylinder logistics into a utility. The war quarter — when the strait that carries India's LPG closed — turned that from welfare policy into energy security.
Applications open through distributors and the portal next month. The health arithmetic — indoor smoke kills — remains the quiet core. More on our India desk.
