5 times more Villages
electrified in 2016-17 under DDUGJY as compared to 2013-14; Four-fold jump in Intensive
Electrification of Rural Households
Free electricity
connections provided to 256.81 Lakh BPL families up to 30th April 2017
Release of Rs
7965.87 Crores in FY 2016-17 is the
highest grant released to States in any Financial Year, over the years
Projects with an
outlay of Rs. 42,553.17 Crores approved
for 32 States/UTs
Union Minister
of State (IC) for
Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy and Mines, Shri Piyush Goyal addressed
the media on Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) here
today.
The
Minister said,
“Every state in the country has joined Power for All
agreement”. All the states have pledged to boost holistic
development of entire village electrification process to provide 24x7
affordable and quality power to all which is planned under DDUGJY.
The Minister interacted with the
regional media representatives from 12 State Capitals through video
conferencing and informed them about latest achievements under the DDUGJY
scheme in the respective States. Shri Goyal also launched the
new dashboard for GARV application and booklet on rural electrification on the
occasion.
Talking about the impact of good
governance in Rural Electrification, Shri Goyal said, “The
Government is working on the concept of 4S i.e. Skill, Speed, Scale and now Sewa to improve the lives of the
rural populace as the prime priority. The Minister further
added, “We have changed the rules of this game. Instead of counting 10% households in the
village to complete electrification process, now the Government is focusing on
providing power connections to each and every household of village, thus
providing meaning to the concept of ‘Antyodaya’.
Shri Goyal said that, in line with the
philosophy of Pandit DeenDayal Upadhyaya of ANTYODAYA (serving the last Man), on 20th
November 2014, Government of India had approved Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti
Yojana (DDUGJY), an integrated scheme
covering all aspects of rural power distribution viz.,
Feeder Segregation, System Strengthening, Metering. Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, in his Independence Day address to the nation on 15th August 2015 pledged to electrify all Un-electrified
villages within 1000 days. Government of India therefore
taken up Village Electrification on Mission mode
targeting completion by May 2018.
Shri Goyal further added that, out of
the 18,452 un-electrified census villages in the country,
13,469 villages have been electrified up to 15th May, 2017. A comparison of
Achievements and the Physical & Financial Progress under
rural electrification scheme in 2013-14
& 2016-17 is given as follows:
Parameters
|
2013-14
|
2016-17
|
2017-18 Target
|
Electrification
of un-electrified villages
|
1,197
|
6,015 (5.02 times)
|
Balance un-electrified villages to be electrified by May 2018
|
Intensive
electrification of villages
|
14,956
|
63,330 (4.2 times)
|
85,000
|
Free
Electricity Connections to BPL households*
|
9.62
|
22.42 (2.3 times)
|
40 Lakh
|
Government of
India Grant released to States**
|
Rs. 2938.52 Crores
|
Rs. 7965.87 Crores (2.7 times)
|
Rs. 4814 Crores
|
*Free electricity
connections to BPL Households provided to 256.81Lakh BPL families up to 30th April 2017
** Release of highest
ever grant in any FY of Rs 7965.87 Crores to States
Background Information
The remaining rural electrification
works of the erstwhile scheme have been subsumed into DDUGJY. The
scheme outlay is Rs 43,033 Crores with Rs 33,453 Crores grant from Government
of India. The overall outlay, with the subsumed rural
electrification works, is Rs. 75,893 Crores including
Grant of Rs. 63,027 Crores from Government of India.
Under new DDUGJY, Government of India
provides grant at the rate of 60% of project cost (85% for special category States). Further, additional grant at the rate of 15% grant
is provided (5% for Special Category
States) on fulfilment of the prescribed milestones. Under this scheme, the new projects with an outlay of Rs. 42,553.17 Crores have been approved for
32 States/UTs including works of Feeder Separation (Rs 15572.99 Crores),
System Strengthening & Connecting Rural Households (Rs
19706.59 Crores), Metering (Rs 3874.48 Crores),
Village Electrification (Rs 2792.57
Crores) and Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (Rs
398.54 Crores).
More than 350 Gram Vidyut Abhiyantas (GVA) deployed in the field to monitor the
progress of village electrification works. GARV Mobile App
(garv.gov.in) was developed for monitoring progress of electrification in
18,452 un-electrified villages, in line with milestones. GVAs update in the GARV App, field photographs, data and other
information. On 20th December
2016, updated GARV App had been launched for monitoring Household
electrification in all 5.97 Lakh Villages. Updated
GARV has the special feature of SAMVAD – engaging the
citizens for establishing transparency and accountability.
The scheme is expected to transform
lifestyle of villagers and bring in overall socio-economic
development in rural areas. Following are the key outcomes
of the scheme:
·
Increased
productivity in agriculture
·
Reducing
drudgery for women
·
Improvement
in children education
·
Connectivity
to all villages and households
·
Viable
and reliable electricity services in rural areas
·
Improvement
in delivery of health & education services
·
Improvement
in access to communications (radio, telephone, television,
mobile)
·
Improvement
in public safety through lighting
The scheme has complete
flexibility for selecting scope of works as per local requirement/priority
of States.
The
population criteria have been dispensed with and all Villages/hamlets
without any population restriction are eligible under the scheme. States
are to consult District Electricity Committee (DEC)
while formulating DPRs and the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) proposals
of Members
of
Parliament are necessarily to be covered in the scheme. The
scheme has other features like Mandatory E-tendering,
compliance of Standard Bidding Document. Private Discoms
and RE Cooperative Societies are also eligible under the scheme. The
scheme is being reviewed by DISHA (District
Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee). Government of
India is committed to transform the lives of rural populace and provide 24x7 Power for All (PFA).
*****
RM/VM/PS