Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged the Odisha Government to set specific timeline so that all un-electrified villages in the State avail grid power by end of May in 2018.
Notably, Odisha is having the highest number of un-electrified villages in the country.
In a letter to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, the Prime Minister has underscored the urgency required in this sector and has briefed the former in detail about the Deendayal Upadhaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) under which adequate funds have been placed for village electrification in the country.
It may be pointed out that the Prime Minister in his Independence Day speech made a commitment that country would achieve total electrification of villages in 1000 days.
The DDUGJY, a flagship programme of the Union Ministry of Power for 24×7 supply facilitation of electricity, focuses on feeder separation (rural households and agricultural) and strengthening of sub-transmission and distribution infrastructure, including metering at all levels in rural areas.
The earlier scheme for rural electrification, Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) launched by the previous UPA Government, has been subsumed in the new scheme as its rural electrification component.
The DDUGJY has an outlay of Rs 76,000 crore for implementation of the projects under which the Centre would provide grant of Rs 63,000 crore. Accordingly, funds have been placed with the Ministry of Power for massive rural electrification, states the PM’s missive to Patnaik.
Out of the 5,97,464 villages in the country, 5,79,012 villages have already received grid power as on May 31, 2015, and the Centre is planning to provide electrification to the balance 18,452 villages by May 31, 2018.
The Prime Minister has urged all Chief Ministers to take up village electrification in a time-bound manner.
Out of the 11 major States like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Assam, Odisha has the dubious distinction of having the highest number of un-electrified villages.
As many as 4,091 villages in Odisha are yet to be electrified and there was fund constraint to provide grid power to the villages earlier, said sources, adding that comparatively in Rajasthan there are only 482 villages to get electricity connection.
Jharkhand has hardly 944 villages to get connected to grid power while Madhya Pradesh has 743 villages to get electricity.
Against this backdrop, Odisha will have to take up vigorous effort to electrify its villages where children only read about electricity from books.