The Centre is pushing for rural electrification in a big way but 100% household connectivity remains a big challenge.
As per the Power Ministry’s latest figures, as many as 14,492 out of 18,452 (79%) villages have been electrified in the last three years. However, 100% household electricity has been provided in only 1,180 villages (out of 14,492). That means just 8% of the “electrified” villages have “100% power connectivity”.
The Power Ministry, headed by Piyush Goyal, is working on a mission mode to implement Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement made during the Independence Day speech in 2015—to electrifiy all the villages within 1000 days. There were 18,452 un-electrified villages till April 2015.
As per the figures, 2,972 villages are yet to be electrified, out of which work is in progress in 2,809 villages. Electrification work has intensified more under the NDA government compared to what was seen during the previous UPA government though 100% household connectivity remains a challenge. While 1,197 villages were electrified in 2013-14, as many as 6,015 villages were electrified (five times) in 2016-17. The ministry aims at electrifying the remaining un-electrified villages by May 2018.
As per the criteria set by the ministry, a village is said to be electrified if electricity is provided in public places like schools, panchayat offices, health centres, dispensaries, community centres and at least 10% of the households. So even villages, where 90 % of the households do not have the connectivity, will be considered electrified.
Many states have less than 50% of electrification—Bihar (47%), Jharkhand (44%), Nagaland (45%). Uttar Pradesh just crossed 50%. However, the government has made significant achievement in extremist affected states like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand Odisha and West Bengal as it has electrified 6,312 out of 7,218 villages falling in these states.
However, the Prime Minister’s recently launched Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana, “Saubhagya”, will ensure electrification of all willing households in the country in rural as well as urban areas. The objective of the scheme is to provide energy access to all by last mile connectivity and electricity connections to all remaining un-electrified households. Poor households would be provided electricity free of cost.