The Government of India launched Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana – Saubhagya in October, 2017 with the objective to achieve universal household electrification by providing electricity connections to all un-electrified households in rural areas and all poor households in urban areas in the country. Under the scheme, as on 31.03.2019, all households were reported electrified by the States, except 18,734 households in Left Wing Extremist (LWE) affected areas of Chhattisgarh. Subsequently, seven States namely Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Manipur, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh reported that around 19.09 lakh un-electrified households, identified before 31.03.2019, which were unwilling earlier, have later on expressed willingness to get electricity connections.

In addition, Government of India have recently issued guidelines for electrification of any leftover un-electrified households identified before 31.03.2019 prior to Saubhagya for covering these under Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS).

All the States and Union Territories (UTs) have signed MoUs with the Central Government to ensure 24x7 power supply to all households, industrial & commercial consumers and adequate supply of power to agricultural consumers w.e.f. 1st April, 2019 onwards.

 

This information was given by Shri R.K Singh, Union Minister for Power and New and Renewable Energy in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

 

***

 

MV/IG

(Release ID: 1811047) Visitor Counter : 3075