Bhubaneswar: As many as 24,52,444 households in Odisha have been electrified under the Centre’s Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) and Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana – Saubhagya between 2017 and 2022, Union Power, New and Renewable Energy Minister RK Singh informed in the Lok Sabha recently.
In terms of the number of households electrified, Odisha stands third after Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, which have reported electrification of 91,80,571 and 32,59,041 households respectively.
Under the DDUGJY, while 3,281 villages in Odisha have been electrified, a total of 18,374 villages have been hooked to the grid across the country. Moreover, some 1,03,857 households in the state falling below poverty line (BPL) have been provided with electricity connections, the minister informed.
In 2014, the Central government had launched DDUGJY to electrify all villages of the country. Other than ensuring basic electricity connection, the scheme also facilitated augmentation of the rural power transmission and distribution infrastructure, with improved metering at the transformer, feeder and consumer levels.
“As reported by the states, all the inhabited and un-electrified census villages in the country were electrified by April 28, 2018. A total of 18,374 villages were electrified under the scheme,” said Singh in a written reply to the Lower House.
Furthermore, the Union government had launched the Saubhagya scheme in 2017 to achieve universal household electrification by providing connection to all willing unelectrified households in rural areas and poor households in urban areas.
Under Saubhagya, a total of 2.86 crore households (including tribal households) have been electrified, the minister added.
Similarly, responding to a query from Jajpur MP Sarmistha Sethi during the recently-concluded Winter Session, Singh had said that under DDUGJY the Jajpur constituency has received grant for projects of 61.7 crore against sanctioned cost of 116.04 crore. Three villages of the district, Nagada, Gulhiasal and Chirugunia, have also been completely electrified.
In reply to another query from the Bolangir MP Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo, the minister had informed that under DDUGJY the constituency has received grant for projects of 171.35 crore against sanctioned cost of 301.95 crore.
By ATRI PRASAD ROUT, OP