Odisha has apparently witnessed a rare plug-out case in rural electrification as around a 1,000 villages in a span of a year slipped back to the category of partially-electrified/un-electrified status.
Besides, a whopping 43.8 lakh rural households have no electricity connections in the State. The story sounds more horrible when Odisha now stands as the top-most State in the country having maximum number of un-electrified villages. Interestingly, Bihar and north-eastern States posted a better show than Odisha.
Sample the slip-up. The number of un-electrified villages as on March 31, 2014 in the State were at 3,133. But the number rose to around 4,091 by the end of March 2015. Even by the end of August 2015, the total un-electrified villages in the State stood at around 3,900.
This brings to the fore the fact that many electrified villages in the State have fallen back to slipped-back habitations category (means from fully electrified to partially electrified category) during a span of one-year period. For this, Odisha now has the dubious distinction of having the largest contingent of un-electrified villages nationally.
More worrying is, when the electrification has been completed in around 92 per cent villages, only 46 per cent households so far in the State have electricity connections. In providing electricity connections to BPl households, Odisha with an achievement of around 62 per cent fared worse than neighbouring States like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh. When electricity connections to BPl households are taken into consideration district-wise, Puri district till date tops the list by
having electricity connections to only 40 per cent of the BPl households against the highest of 82 per cent in Angul. Except Jajpur and Cuttack, the rate of connections to BPl households is poor ranging from 40-60 per cent.
The situation in southern districts is equally poor. It seems the pace of implementing agencies also doesn't look enthusing. Contract for as high as 21 rural electrification projects in State are yet to be awarded and during a review meeting recently, Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal has also stressed the need for expediting the process in as many 30 projects.
However, regarding the problem of slipped-back villages, experts are of the opinion that the State Government has the responsibility of ensuring in keeping the status of villages fully electrified status.
The State Energy Department is also unhappy over the tardy progress of work under the Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) in the State. Sources blame the lackadaisical progress in some projects on lack of inadequate deployment of manpower and added that surrendering of projects entirely at the mercy of power contractors have also played havoc for the State. Interestingly, only 1 per cent of the sanctioned amount worth Rs3, 555crore for 31 projects during the 12th Plan has been released till date. However, to achieve electricity for all by 2019, the Power Ministry has sanctioned 30 new projects under DDUGJY costing Rs1,656 crore. These new projects would connect over 521 villages to grid.