Stressing that health of power sector was not a matter  of "politics", Prime Minister  Narendra  Modi on Saturday urged States and Union Territories to clear pending power dues "as soon as possible."

The Prime Minister asserted that in politics people should have "courage to tell the truth"  and  sought states to  avoid  "postponing" it  which he said has led  the power sector in many states into "huge problems."

Modi was addressing the gathering at the Grand Finale marking the culmination of ‘Ujjwal Bharat Ujjwal Bhavishya – Power @2047’  via video conferencing.

"This strategy may sound like good politics in the short term. But it is like postponing today’s truth, today’s challenges, for tomorrow, for our children, and for our future generations.

 "This thinking of avoiding solutions to today’s problems and leaving them for the future is not good for the country. This thought process has pushed the power sector in many states into huge problems", he said.

During the programme, the PM launched the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme. He also dedicated and laid the foundation stone of various green energy projects of NTPC and launched the National Solar rooftop portal.

He wondered if the common man could pay his electricity dues regularly, why was it that some states failed in paying theirs to the discoms. "People will be surprised to know that different states have outstanding dues of more than Rs 1 lakh crore," he revealed.

The Prime Minister said losses in our distribution sector are in double digits whereas in the developed countries of the world it is in single digit.

"This means that we have a lot of wastage of electricity and therefore we have to generate more electricity than we need to meet the demand for electricity", Modi said.

He said there is a lack of investment in reducing distribution and transmission losses in many states."They have to give this money to power generation companies. Power distribution companies are owed more than Rs 60,000 crore from many government departments, and local bodies,” said Modi.

He said that these companies are not able to get even the money that has been committed for subsidy on electricity in different states on time and in full.

"This arrear is also more than Rs 75,000 crore. Those responsible for activities ranging from the generation of electricity to the door-to-door delivery, their about two and a half lakh crore rupees are trapped", he said..

The Prime Minister requested the states whose dues are pending, to clear them "as soon as possible."

He said also, "honestly consider the reasons that even when the countrymen pay their electricity bills honestly, why do some states have arrears again and again? ".

Modi said this is not a matter of ‘Rajniti’ (politics) but pertains to ‘Rashtra Niti’ and nation building, he said

He ended by reminding the stakeholders that the health of the electricity sector is everyone’s responsibility .

During the function, Prime  Minister reminded that work on two big green hydrogen projects in Ladakh and Gujarat is starting today.

The plant being set up in Ladakh will produce green hydrogen for vehicles in the country.

 This will be the first project in the country which will make commercial use of green hydrogen-based transport possible.

Ladakh very soon will be the first place in the country where fuel cell electric vehicles will start to ply. This will help in making Ladakh a carbon-neutral region, he said.

The Prime Minister informed that in the last 8 years, about 1,70,000 MW of electricity generation capacity has been added in the country. One Nation One Power Grid has become the strength of the country today.

About 1,70,000 circuit kilometre transmission lines have been laid to connect the entire country.

 Furthermore, by giving 3 crore connections under the Saubhagya Scheme, we are also nearing the saturation goal, he said.