NEW DELHI: The Centre has scaled down the target for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s electrification programme — Saubhagya. Saubhagya is an acronym, coined by the Prime Minister himself, for the Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana when he launched it last month.
At the launch on September 25, the Prime Minister said at least thrice that there were four crore households that do not have electricity more than 70 years after Independence. That is a huge number.
The power ministry has now lowered that target to three crores. Saubhagya is aimed at giving free electricity connections — not free power — to all by March 31, 2019. The earlier target date was December 31, 2018. Even going by the latest figures, that would mean the Central government has to ensure an average seven lakh electricity connections per day.
Speaking to The New Indian Express, sources in the power ministry explained that the four crore figure was “an assumption” while the figure of three crore is “an estimate”. They said the plan for the scheme announced last month was still being drafted. Work was likely to begin from February.
That means the government has even less time than it had assessed it would to ensure free electricity connections just before the scheduled 2019 general elections.
In the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections earlier this year, a comparable scheme for cheap power supply — Ujjwala — was a hit. Despite the polarising rhetoric, the BJP’s promise to give electricity connections was actually swaying voter mindsets.
“Implementation of the scheme (Saubhagya) has not started yet on the ground. Tenders will be opened in the coming days and the actual work will actually start only in January or after,” said an official.
The official explained that the initial figure of about four crore un-electrified houses “was based on the latest Census data”. However, subsequently, it was found that about one crore such houses were already covered, he said.
Snapshot of Saubhagya:
Estimated households to be covered:
No of rural households: 1,796 lakh
Electrified rural houses: 1,336 lakh
Balance un-electrified rural houses: 460 lakh
BPL households under Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana, yet to be electrified: 179 lakh
Balance rural houses to be covered: 281 lakh
Economically poor un-electrified households in urban areas: 50 lakh
Un-electrified household not yet covered: 331 lakh
Source: Ministry of Power