Responding to a question asked by MP Mahesh Poddar in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, Minister of State for Finance, Anurag Singh Thakur said that based on the information given by SLBC Jharkhand, during the lockdown between April and August 2020 an amount of Rs 365.29 crores were deposited in Jan Dhan accounts of Jharkhand. As of 20 January 2021, there are 1,52,96,266 Jan Dhan accounts, with 1,28,43,490 accounts operating in the State.
Based on the information provided by the banks, Thakur said that on 20 January 2021, 35.92 crore accounts were operational out of 41.70 crore accounts opened under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana in the country.
The government has launched the Jan Dhan Darshak (JDD) app developed by the National Informatics Center i.e. NIC on the basis of GIS to provide banking facilities within 5 km to all habitation villages. Banks upload the GIS location of their branches, business correspondents and ATMs on the App. According to the JDD App, 1.66 lakh branches, 4.35 business correspondents and 2.07 lakh ATMs have been identified by banks. According to the data uploaded by the banks on the JDD App, out of 5.53 lakh villages identified on the app, 5.52 lakh ie 99.8 per cent of the villages have the facility of bank branch or business correspondents within the radius of 5 km.
Poddar said that Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited (JBVNL), which is constantly in loss, should review its power purchase deals by assessing the current situation in the country's energy market. Referring to the answer to the question asked in the House on Tuesday, Poddar said that cheap solar power is easily available in the country through SEKI, by increasing the purchase of which JBVNL can reduce its expenses and losses.
In response to a question by Poddar, the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for New and Renewable Energy and Power, R. K. Singh said that the Solar Energy Corporation of India Ltd. will set up projects to produce Securities Renewable Energy and act as an intermediate buyer - select developers to set up renewable energy generation projects through transparent bids, Is working to purchase power and sell it to distribution companies.
In the financial year 2018-19, SEKI entered into 10 agreements for the sale of 3050 MW renewable energy among various power distribution companies of the country, including the purchase of 700 MW power by Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited. Similarly, in the financial year 2019-20, SEKI has done 15 deals of 5050 MW renewable energy sales.
As many as 6832 million units of electricity have been produced in the financial year 2018-19 and 9810 million units of electricity in 2019-20 under the SEKI tenders by various solar power developers in the country. The government has prescribed Renewable Energy Procurement Obligation (RPO), under which it is mandatory for the power distribution companies (Discoms) to purchase a minimum amount of renewable power including solar power. In addition, solar tariffs have come down significantly in the last few years due to government initiatives like Solar Park, Green Energy Corridor and Standard Bid Guidelines for the purchase of solar / wind energy. This has made renewable power an attractive option compared to conventional electricity.