Jammu, Oct 31: Governor Satya Pal Malik today flagged off ‘SaubhagyaRaths’ for 20 districts of Kashmir and Jammu divisions here from Raj Bhavan to ensure on-the-spot electrification of the households which may not have got electricity connections thus far.
SAUBHAGYA RATHs under ‘Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana’ -SAUBHAGYA shall traverse each district for one month till November 30, 2018 to rule out the possibility of any household remaining un electrified in the state, an official press release informed.
It said Advisors to the Governor, B B Vyas, K Vijay Kumar and Khurshid Ahmad Ganai, Chief Secretary, BVR Subrahmanyam, Commissioner Secretary PDD, Hirdesh Kumar, Divisional Commissioner Jammu, Sanjeev Verma, Deputy Commissioner, Jammu, Ramesh Kumar Development Commissioner Power, Ajay Gupta, besides Chief Engineers, Superintending Engineers, XEns of PDD were present on the occasion.
The left-out households, if any, need to report to the SAUBHAGYA RATH in-charge for providing on-spot electricity connection under the scheme.
Development Commissioner Power, Ajay Gupta said the SAUBHAGYA scheme, launched by Prime Minister one year ago, has made headway towards achieving its prime objective that is to provide 100 percent electrification to all households in across the country, in rural as well as urban areas.
Under the scheme, free electricity connections are provided to poor households enlisted/identified as per Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC) 2011 i.e. no fees/security deposit chargeable from such households and connections on payment of Rs 500, recoverable in 10 equal installments in subsequent electricity bills, for non-poor rural households (not included in SECC data), he added. Non-poor Urban households were, however, excluded from the scheme, the DCP said.
The DCP informed that out of 3,57,405 un-electrified households identified in the survey carried out by the Power Development Department along with the help of field functionaries from other Departments, a total of 2,26,367 households were already proposed under the ongoing `DeenDayalUpadhaya Gram Jyoti Yojana -(DDUGJY)’ and other allied schemes, while the remaining 1,31,038 uncovered households were proposed under the ‘ SAUBHAGYA ‘ scheme (3904 Hhs through off-Grid mode) at total DPR cost of Rs 1033.03 Cr submitted to Ministry of Power (MoP), against which a preliminary amount of Rs 133.42 Cr was granted. Subsequent amount of Rs 875.03 Cr has also been approved by Government of India as an additional amount for creation of additional infrastructure under the scheme against which Rs 223.13 Cr have been granted.
He further informed that around 20,000 households located in extremely remote/inaccessible locations requiring longer time for grid connectivity to ensure adherence to stipulated timelines, for them, various other means were adopted like energizing locally created LT networks through DG sets and solar Standalone off-grid solutions.
He added that a large number of camps were organized in different villages across the State, including those located in border areas, by the department during the last one year for maximum public outreach. On-spot electricity connections were provided during these camps. Innovative methods by developing mobile app for conducting e-survey of un-electrified households-registration of electric connections were also adopted, he added.
