Ujjwala has led social change, 45% of beneficiaries dalits and tribals: PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that the 'Ujjwala Yojna', a flagship welfare scheme of his government aimed at increasing LPG cylinder coverage among poor families, has led to a social transformation with over 45 per cent of its forty million beneficiaries being Dalits and tribals.

In an interaction with the scheme's beneficiaries, he underlined his government's pro-Dalit credentials by comparing benefits given to the community under it against what they received under the Congress-led UPA government.

While Dalits got 445 petrol pumps under 2010-14 during the UPA rule, more than 1200 of them got it during 2014-18 in his government's rule, he said, adding that the corresponding figures for LPG distribution centres for the community are over 900 and 1300.

"Since people started to get benefits under the Ujjwala Yojna, a big social transformation is visible. I am happy to tell you that out of its four crore beneficiaries 45 per cent are Dalits and tribals," he said.

Good show by Modi govt in four years; private sector now needs to pitch in

Evaluating the performance of any government on economic grounds is challenging. This is so because direct linkages are at best by chance as phenomena like oil prices, monsoons, global forces etc. affect inflation and exchange rates which are beyond the purview of any government. Further, it would also be disingenuous to say that the NPAs are high during a particular regime due to the ruling government as these things build up over time and mere recognition cannot be attributed to a government.

Hence, to evaluate the performance of the NDA government in the last 4 years a twofold approach is required. The first is to judge what is within the purview of the government and the progress made therein and the second is a comparison of economic indicators in the pre- and post-periods as part of the routine.

The performance of the NDA government in terms of conceptualisation and implementation of policies has been most remarkable with very little left to be done. The major reforms that were noteworthy are bringing in the eNAM (electronic national agricultural market), opening up of FDI (defence and railways equipment included), GST, power sector reforms, addressing NPA issue through the IBC and recap measures, improving the doing business environment, channeling funds for the SMEs etc.