Union Minister of State for Power (Independent charge) Piyush Goyal assured power to every house of the village in UP by 2018. In the process, he accused the UP government of taking no interest in rural electrification and asserted that it was after the NDA government came to the Centre, that the SP government was forced to prioritise the scheme. Goyal was addressing the media ahead of launching a Pilot Project of District Vidyut Abhiyantas (DVAs) for UP in lucknow on Friday afternoon.
"When I took charge I was shocked to find that the UP government was taking no interest in rural electrification and there are data to corroborate their lackadisical effort,” claimed the minister. He pointed out that in 2012-13, only three villages of UP were electrified while in 2013-14, the situation worsened and not a single village was electrified.
"After learning of the UP government’s approach, we took the work on war-footing and forced the SP government to complete rural electrification in 1306 villages in the last two years,” added Goyal. He assured that by May 1, 2018, the remaining villages will be electrified.
"When the NDA took over reins, 18,452 villagers were un-electrified in the country. Today, power connections have been supplied to 7146 villages under Deen Dayal Upadhya Gram Jyoti Yojna. In UP too, of the 1529 remaining villages, work has been completed in 1306 villages," said the Union minister.
Taking credit for the work in UP, Goyal said that his ministry had helped bring transparency in electrification work. "The Union government, especially the Rural Electrification Corporation limited (REC), put pressure on the UP government for taking up the work in right earnest. Due to our efforts, today there is more transparency in electrification work. A review is done at my level every month with Power secretaries and officialsm," he said.
To a question on the SP government accusing the Centre of non-cooperation in Power sector, Goyal said, "They should specify what more cooperation they required from the Centre. The state has been accorded top priority in all power projects and UP has been allotted a maximum of Rs 6,946 crores under the Deendayal Upadhaya Gram Jyoti Yojna. In other projects too, the state is being given special focus. Hence allegations of non-cooperation are unsubstantiated," he said.
The Union minister said that despite the Gadgil formula of power allocation being in force for the the past several years, the Centre has agreed to provide power to UP as per its demands.
On the pilot project of District Vidyut Abhiyantas, Goyal said, "Under this, district 'vidyut samitis' will have the right to monitor electrification work. The progress of ongoing electrification work on real time basis can be tracked by the users and stakeholders on `GARV mobile App’."
Goyal said that another App 'Vidyut Pravah' is already in use for public to known the power exchange rate on that particular time (The rate on which power can be purchased).