Final leg of rural power plan gets nod

New Delhi The last leg of the rural electrification programme has started with the Cabinet approving a “grant” of Rs 28,000 crore to electrify over 100,000 villages by 2009.

The grant, under the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY), will ensure that “almost” all 600,000 villages in the country are electrified.

This, however, does not mean that all rural households will get electricity. A village is declared electrified if 10 per cent or more households get electricity.

With less than half (44 per cent) rural households electrified, the government plans to intensify electrification in already electrified villages. “There are about 112,000 villages where distribution will be strengthened,” said a senior power ministry official.

About 60 per cent of the grant is expected to be spent on electrifying Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand. Other states that need to electrify a substantial number of villages are West Bengal, Orissa, Meghalaya, Uttaranchal and Assam.

Eight states have achieved 100 per cent village electrification — Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Haryana, Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Nagaland.

Besides, 250 million crore households below poverty line (BPL) would be given free connections by 2009. Under the Rajiv Gandhi yojana, the Centre gives 90 per cent grant and states contribute 10 per. Questions have, however, been raised on the supply and revenue fronts.

“Revenue sustainability is a very big challenge because rural people don’t pay, which puts pressure on finances,” said the official.

The government has, however, devised a scheme under which states will have to give commitments to release funds to their electricity boards before receiving grants from the Centre, officials say.

As far as electricity supply sustainability was concerned, there would be gaps, said officials.

At the end of the programme, about 12,000 villages in the country will remain without electricity because they are out of reach of the power grid.

“These villages will be provided power through decentralised generation,” said the power ministry official.

Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde recently said that all rural household would be electrified by 2012 and all villages get electricity by 2009.

In the first week of the next month, a group of ministers (GoM) on the RGVVY, headed by Shinde, would discuss ways to improve the programme.