Govt's rural electrification scheme in dark
Delay in sanctioning money has taken its toll on the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojna as the government has fallen short of target to electrify the villages by more than 50 per cent.
By PTI |
NEW DELHI: Delay in sanctioning money has taken its toll on the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojna as the government has fallen short of target to electrify the villages by more than 50 per cent.
"There was delay in the sanction of money for the XIth plan, which led to the slippages in rural electrification targets," Minister of State for Power Jairam Ramesh said adding that out of 1.25 lakh villages to be electrified only 45,000 villages have got electricity.
He, however, said in two years from now all villages would be electrified.
A senior official in Ministry of Power said rural electrification is an ongoing process, there are bottlenecks and the government is working towards meeting the targets.
RGGVY, launched in 2005, is proposed to cover 1.25 lakh villages and provide free connections to 2.35 crore people below poverty line (BPL) households. Under the scheme about 45,000 villages have already been electrified and 21 lakh free connections have been provided to poor households.
In the 11th Plan, the Planning Commission has approved Rs 28,000 crore for the implementation of RGGVY.
Under the Plan, 316 new projects costing Rs 16,000 crore have been approved, which are likely to commence operation within the next six months.
RGGVY aims at creating rural electricity infrastructure and household electrification with 90 per cent grant from the central government and 10 per cent loan from the Rural Electrification Corp (REC).
The government has launched the web portal on RGGVY to provide static as well as progressive information related to the RGGVY into the public domain to promote transparency and provide platform for active public feedback.
So far data on around 82,000 un-electrified villages targeted for electrification and a list of 37,000 villages that have already been electrified under the programme have been entered on the web portal.
"There was delay in the sanction of money for the XIth plan, which led to the slippages in rural electrification targets," Minister of State for Power Jairam Ramesh said adding that out of 1.25 lakh villages to be electrified only 45,000 villages have got electricity.
He, however, said in two years from now all villages would be electrified.
A senior official in Ministry of Power said rural electrification is an ongoing process, there are bottlenecks and the government is working towards meeting the targets.
RGGVY, launched in 2005, is proposed to cover 1.25 lakh villages and provide free connections to 2.35 crore people below poverty line (BPL) households. Under the scheme about 45,000 villages have already been electrified and 21 lakh free connections have been provided to poor households.
In the 11th Plan, the Planning Commission has approved Rs 28,000 crore for the implementation of RGGVY.
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Under the Plan, 316 new projects costing Rs 16,000 crore have been approved, which are likely to commence operation within the next six months.
RGGVY aims at creating rural electricity infrastructure and household electrification with 90 per cent grant from the central government and 10 per cent loan from the Rural Electrification Corp (REC).
The government has launched the web portal on RGGVY to provide static as well as progressive information related to the RGGVY into the public domain to promote transparency and provide platform for active public feedback.
So far data on around 82,000 un-electrified villages targeted for electrification and a list of 37,000 villages that have already been electrified under the programme have been entered on the web portal.
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