11.2.19

Only 28,500 households left to be electrified

Just about 28,500 or 0.1% of households in a clutch of five districts across the country remain un-electrified amid expectation that full electrification will be completed by the month-end, bringing to conclusion an ambitious project to take electricity to all villages.

Data on the government website showed that around 8,500 households were yet to be electrified in Rajasthan’s Udaipur. In Chhattisgarh, around 20,000 households need to be provided connections in Bijapur, Narayanpur, Dantewada and Sukma, which are severely hit by Left-wing extremism. The remaining households are spread over 553 villages.

The overall pace of the scheme’s target to deliver electricity connections to 2.5 crore households indicates that the task may be complete well before the March deadline. This will mark a major step after the electrification of 19,614 villages.

The decision to aim for electrification of all willing households was taken after deliberation, according to an official who said that initially the plan was to set all mohallas or localities in a town or village as the target. But this would have missed out on households and after more deliberations, PM Modi gave the nod for a much more challenging goal.

Electrification of all households under PM Saubhagya scheme had advanced the deadline to December but officials said they are well on their way to meet the target before the original deadline of March.

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