The NDA government’s ambitious plan to provide 24x7 electricity to every unelectrified rural household under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana is facing a roadblock as it has failed to penetrate the 106 districts in 10 states that are affected by left-wing extremism (LWE).
The government is now working on a plan where 30 per cent funding to provide electricity in these districts would be given by the states where they are situated and the remainder would be provided by the Centre with a repayment period of 15 to 20 years.
According to highly placed sources, in a recent interaction between the Centre with all the states, considering the problems being faced in taking the ambitious rural electrification scheme to LWE-affected areas, it was more or less unanimously agreed that except for the LWE areas, the desired targets fixed under the ambitious rural electrification plan for each state would be achieved by them by March 2019.
It is reliably learnt that the PMO is working out a scheme in tandem with the power ministry for LWE areas, which entails 30 per cent funding from the concerned states where these districts are located, while the balance would be given by the Union power ministry with a repayment period of 15 to 20 years. Sources said all the states were asked during the meeting to expedite electrification of all unelectrified villages in their jurisdiction as soon as possible and according to the timelines given to them under the scheme.
In fact, the states were asked to put up signboards outside villages where work had been completed declaring the village fully electrified. Also, the control room numbers for feed-back from the public in case of any deficiency were also asked to be displayed outside such electrified villages, sources said.
