BHUBANESWAR: The Assembly Standing Committee on Energy department has recommended the State Government to provide more funds for rural electrification under Biju Gram Jyoti Yojana (BGJY).
The committee, headed by senior BJD MLA Pravat Kumar Tripathy, has suggested the Government to raise the budgetary allocation under BGJY scheme from Rs 75 crore to Rs 100 crore for the current financial year.
The Standing Committee report, which was tabled in the Assembly on Wednesday, said 12,437 out of 15,839 habitations having less than 100 population have been electrified till the end of 2013 with an expenditure of Rs 326.77 crore.
The scheme, launched in 2007-08 to provide electricity to all the habitations not covered under the Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutkaran Yojana (RGGVY), has received `559.59 crore from the State Government till March 2014. The utilisation of fund during the same period was `368.46 crore.
The House committee further recommended the Government to develop a dedicated electrical feeders for poultry firms for the growth of the sector in the State.
A provision of Rs 101 crore was made in the last budget to provide dedicated feeders for supplying power to agriculture and pisciculture.
As the capital expenditure (Capex) programme is not making desired progress, the Assembly committee has recommended the Government to facilitate counterpart funding for the distribution companies.
Unable to pay the monthly bulk power bill of Gridco, the financially distressed discoms - CESU, Nesco, Southco and Wesco - are facing difficulties in fund mobilisation from open market.
The Government has made an outlay of Rs 135 crore, including 13th Finance Commission grant of Rs 125 crore in 2014-15 budget for the Capex programme, which was launched in 2010-11. However, the programme got delayed due to several factors, including counterpart funding by the discoms.
The committee has also suggested the Government to make provision for shifting transformers from all educational institutions.