New Delhi: States like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand have been found wanting in terms of quality of installed infrastructure under the Narendra Modi government’s pet rural electrification sch-eme “Deen Dayal Upadhy-aya Gram Jyoti Yojana” (DDUGJY), which aims to provide electricity to all rural households.
Considering the fact that Uttar Pradesh is a power deficient state, while both Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh are rich in coal reserves, the quality of infrastructure meant for augmenting power supply in rural households is found to be of poor quality in these key states. This could defeat the very purpose of the entire scheme.
Highly placed sources have even accepted that the existing monitoring system is not satisfactory either. They added that efforts are being made to inform states to develop monitoring systems at grassroot levels.
DDUGJY is a new form of the erstwhile UPA regime’s Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY). Its core aim of providing electricity to all rural households has been further supplemented with separating agriculture and non-agriculture feeders.
Sources within the Union power ministry said that the aforementioned states have a lot of room to cover in terms of improving quality of infrastructure.
Concerned over the poor quality of work being done under DDUGJY, the Centre had sought the services of Quality Control of India (QCI), which conducted a special survey on quality monitoring of works, sources said. QCI had conducted its survey in six states namely UP, Bihar, Jhark-hand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Assam.
Sources said that it was on the basis of this survey that the Centre evaluated the quality of work done by these states under the rural electrification scheme.
