BHUBANESWAR: The rural electrification drive of the Government has failed to improve the situation appreciably as many households in electrified villages in the State continue to live without power.
Even as the State Government had set a target to provide electricity to all villages by May 2017 and all households by March 2019, nearly 373 villages and 34.36 lakh rural households are yet to be electrified.
While the State Government claims to have provided electricity to more than 64 lakh households so far, the status report of the Ministry of Power stated that 51.14 lakh out of 85.5 lakh households of the State have electricity connections.
The much-touted free electricity connections to BPL families under this flagship programme has turned out to be a damp squib with the State achieving only 6 per cent of the target by providing electricity connection to 1.05 lakh households out of 16.58 lakh households in the 12th Plan period (2012-2017).
Of the 45 lakh BPL families of the State, around 28.51 lakh families are covered under the programme leaving 16.5 lakh households under darkness.
The NDA Government has sanctioned Rs 1654.53 crore for 30 projects under Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) which include Rs 301.81 crore for village electrification, Rs 726.65 crore for electrification of rural households and system strengthening, `440.93 crore for metering and Rs 140 crore for feder segregation.
Official sources said, contracts for all the projects have been awarded and the Centre has so far released `218.39 crore. All projects are under implementation. The village electrification programme is not making desired progress in two districts of Malkangiri and Koraput due to Maoist activities while delay in obtaining forest clearance is the other reason for the slow progress in Nayagarh, Sundargarh and Rayagada districts, the sources said.
Even as the rural electrification works are being implemented by three Central government agencies like
PGCIL, OPTCL, NTPC and State agency OREDA for off-grid connection, the BJP blamed the State Government for its lack of drive to complete the programme as per schedule.
With the Prime Minister launching the Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana - Saubhagya, on Monday which aimed at meeting the cost of last-mile connectivity to households, achieving the revised target of household connectivity now appears bright, the sources maintained.
Earlier, the NITI Aayog had suggested the Centre to provide support to non-BPL families who are not financially sound to bear the cost of power connection.