The Centre has admitted in Parliament that whooping 68 per cent of rural households are yet to get electricity in Jharkhand. Also, a total of 907 inhabited villages in the State still devoid of power.
Minister of State (Independent Charges) for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy Piyush Goyal replying to a question raised by Rajya Sabha MP Parimal Nathwani provided the information on Monday.
In a statement tabled in the House, the Minister stated that there are total 46,85,965 rural households in Jharkhand, of which 15,14,050 rural households are with electricity as per census 2011 and 31, 71, 915 households are yet to be electrified. Total number of inhabited villages in Jharkhand was 29,492 of which 28,585 inhabited villages were electrified as on December 31, 2014, while balance 907 villages were to be electrified, as per 2011 Census.
The Rajya Sabha member from Jharkhand wanted to know about the number of people in Jharkhand without electricity connections and also questioned the manner in which the Government proposes to supply power to all homes in the country by 2019 with specific information about number of villages in the country without electricity.
The Minister said that as per the Census total number of inhabited villages in the country were 5,97,464, out of which 5,79,012 were electrified as on March 31, 2015. He stated that the Centre has approved Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) in December, 2014 with an outlay of Rs43033 crore. The erstwhile Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojna (RGGVY) has been subsumed into DDUGJY as RE component of the scheme, he said.
The Minister also stated that under the scheme, all un-electrified villages or habitations irrespective of population criterion can be covered for electrification in accordance with the guidelines of the scheme. Under RE component of DDUGJY, 17 projects have been sanctioned in the XII Plan in March 2014 in Jharkhand, covering release of free electricity connection to 4,71,972 BPl households, said the Minister.
Moreover, a senior official of Power Department while confirming about the figure added that work is in progress on this front. “We have had some issues relating to distribution of areas among erstwhile JSEB, NTPC and DVC. It ate up lot of time. But things are being streamlined and better results can be expected in future,” he said.
Goyal added, 273 projects were sanctioned in XII Plan during the year 2013-14 in the country, covering electrification of 8,830 un-electrified villages.
CM acts tough on power woes
Ranchi: Chief Minister Raghubar Das coming down heavily on recent power problems suspended two electricity engineers on Monday. Executive Engineer (Transmission) Arun Kumar and Assistant Engineer (Transmission) Gaurav Kumar have faced the ire of the CM. The CM has also formed a three-member committee to probe the entire matter which led to pathetic electricity supply in major parts of the Capital city for nearly 20 days. He also summoned Energy Secretary SKG Rahate in his office and expressed displeasure over burning of two transformers of 50 MVA at a time. The CM also directed the officials to upkeep the power supply in the city and other parts of the State.