Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal said that every state in the country has joined ‘Power for All’ agreement and all the states have pledged to boost holistic development of entire village electrification process to provide 24×7 affordable and quality power to all which is planned under DDUGJY.
Addressing the media on Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) in New Delhi on Friday, the Minister said, “The Government is working on the concept of 4S- Skill, Speed, Scale and now Sewa to improve the lives of the rural populace as the prime priority.”
“ We have changed the rules of this game. Instead of counting 10 percent households in the village to complete electrification process, now the Government is focusing on providing power connections to each and every household of village,” he added.
The Minister interacted with the regional media representatives from 12 State Capitals through video conferencing and informed them about latest achievements under the DDUGJY scheme in the respective States. Goyal also launched the new dashboard for GARV application and booklet on rural electrification on the occasion.
Goyal said that, in line with the philosophy of Pandit DeenDayal Upadhyaya of ANTYODAYA (serving the last Man), on 20th November 2014, Government of India had approved Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY), an integrated scheme covering all aspects of rural power distribution viz., Feeder Segregation, System Strengthening, Metering.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his Independence Day address to the nation on 15th August 2015 pledged to electrify all Un-electrified villages within 1000 days. The government, therefore, has taken up Village Electrification on Mission mode targeting completion by May 2018.
Goyal further added that, out of the 18,452 un-electrified census villages in the country, 13,469 villages have been electrified up to May 15, 2017. He said that rural electrification projects with an outlay of Rs. 42,553.17 crore has been approved for 32 States/UTs. The Minister also informed that release of Rs 7,965.87 crore in FY 2016-17 is the highest grant released to States in any Financial Year, over the years
The remaining rural electrification works of the erstwhile scheme have been subsumed into DDUGJY. The scheme outlay is Rs 43,033 crore with Rs 33,453 Crores grant from Government of India. The overall outlay, with the subsumed rural electrification works, is Rs. 75,893 Crores including Grant of Rs. 63,027 Crores from Government of India.
Under new DDUGJY, the government provides grant at the rate of 60 percent of project cost (85 percent for special category States). Further, additional grant at the rate of 15 percent grant is provided (5 percent for Special Category States) on fulfilment of the prescribed milestones. Under this scheme, the new projects with an outlay of Rs. 42,553.17 crore have been approved for 32 States/UTs including works of Feeder Separation (Rs 15572.99 crore), System Strengthening & Connecting Rural Households (Rs 19706.59 crore), Metering (Rs 3874.48 crore ), Village Electrification (Rs 2792.57 crore) and Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (Rs 398.54 crore).
More than 350 Gram Vidyut Abhiyantas (GVA) deployed in the field to monitor the progress of village electrification works. GARV Mobile App (garv.gov.in) was developed for monitoring progress of electrification in 18,452 un-electrified villages, in line with milestones. GVAs update in the GARV App, field photographs, data and other information.
