Over 3,100 villages in Odisha have no access to electricity

Sambad English Bureau Published On : Aug 7, 2014 at 7:10 PM

Reported by Chinmaya Dehury
Bhubaneswar, Aug 7:

Despite the execution of Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) and Biju Gramya Jyoti Yojana (BGJY) in Odisha, people in as many as 3,144 villages of the state continue to be denied access to power .

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The Union Power minister Piyush Goyal today informed the Lok Sabha that out of 12,468 unelectrified villages across the country, Odisha accounts for 3,144 villages.

Among the other unelectrified villages in the country, 6,882 villages are in Bihar and 1,009 villages in Assam.

Acknowledging that over 40 crore people in eight crore households do not have access to electricity the minister said the government is making all efforts to give them power connection as early as possible.

“Even 65 years after Independence such a large number of population does not have electricity. We have to do a lot of work. We have to remove all anomalies and as soon as possible we have to provide electricity to every household,” he said.

Informing that a substantive amount of funds have been given to all states under RGGVY, he said implementation of the scheme in many states were not completed yet due to various reasons, including non- availability of land to set up sub-stations.

Goyal said in order to cover the villages, the RGGVY has been continued in the 12th five-year plan and 13th five-year plan covering all census villages and habitations with population of more than 100.

According to sources, as on 31st August 2013, 10029 villages out of a total of 47,529 villages in Odisha were yet to be electrified.

While the Centre has launched RGGVY, the state government had launched a flagship scheme called Biju Gram Jyoti in 2007-08 for the electrification of habitations having less than a population of 100 as also the BPL households in those habitations which are not covered under RGGVY.

While the state has fixed a target of covering 10,000 habitations during the 11th five year plan under the scheme, 12,244 habitations and 1,47,649 BPL houses have been electrified till October-2013.