Over 1,300 villages in Uttar Pradesh have been electrified under the rural electrification programme since the BJP-led NDA came to power at the Centre two years ago, Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal said.
The Minister said he aimed to provide electricity “to each and every household” in the State before 2019, adding that the Centre was willing to provide as much power as U.P. required.
Mr. Goyal said after becoming the Power Minister, he “was surprised to find the status of rural electrification in Uttar Pradesh wherein only three villages were electrified during 2012-2014.” However, in the two years of NDA rule, 1,364 villages had been electrified in the State, he said.
“Rural electrification has picked up due to constant efforts and by fixing accountability of officials and promoting transparency,” Mr. Goyal said in Lucknow on Friday, while launching the Pilot Project of District Vidyut Abhiyantas for the State.
U.P. Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has, on many occasions, claimed that the Centre has not cooperated with the State government in ensuring the success of the electrification projects. Mr. Goyal, however, said the Centre had sanctioned the highest amount, Rs. 6,946 crore, to the State government under the Deen Dayal Upadhayaya Gram Jyoti Yojna and Rs. 5,651 crore under the Integrated Power Development Scheme.
“We have approved a few projects recently from which 85 per cent power will be given to U.P.,” Mr. Goyal said, adding that under the Centre’s Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY), U.P. would benefit by Rs. 33,000 crore in the coming years. In January, U.P. became the fourth State, and the first non-NDA ruled, to formally join UDAY.
The State government has also promised to ensure electrification of one lakh villages and hamlets in U.P. by July 2016. Mr. Yadav said his government wanted to achieve 16-hour power supply in rural areas and 22- to 24-hour power supply in urban areas by October this year. The government has asked officials to make sure that the drought-hit Bundelkhand region gets at least 20 hours of electricity every day.
‘One crore bulbs’Mr. Goyal said U.P. had become the fastest State to replace one crore “bulbs with energy-efficient LEDs,” distributed under the Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA) programme.
In Varanasi to lay foundation for underground cabling work, he also announced that the price of LED bulb had dropped to Rs. 80 in U.P. due to the “transparent procurement by EESL and the removal of VAT” in the State.
