BHUBANESWAR: Over 18 lakh families of total 44 lakh BPL families in the State do not have electricity connection in their houses.
This was admitted by Minister of State for Energy Pranab Prakash Das in a written reply to a question from Dilip Ray (BJP). The Minister said of 44,37,182 BPL families in the State, 18,45,894 families have been provided electricity connection.
The highest 86 per cent of BPL families have been provided electricity connection in Kendrapara district while in Ganjam district, only 31 per cent of BPL families have power connection in their houses, he said.
About 800 villages in Sundargarh district do not have road connectivity even though the Centre has provided Rs 12,000 crore under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) till now.
In written reply to questions from Dilip Ray (BJP) in this regard, Rural Development Minister Badrinarayan Patra said so far, the Centre has sanctioned Rs 17,815.38 crore under the PMGSY of which Rs 11942.83 crore has been released.
The State Government has utilised funds released by the Centre by 2014-15. Rest of the funds will be utilised in coming days, the Minister said. Of Rs 5872.55 crore under the PMGSY which is yet to be released under the scheme, Centre will provide 60 per cent of the funds while the State Government will contribute 40 per cent, he said.
Patra said 8808 roads of 34,130 km and 127 bridges have been completed under the scheme so far. With the rest of the funds, 2841 roads and 165 bridges will be constructed. As many as 1641 villages did not have road connectivity when the PMGSY was launched. Out of the road projects sanctioned for 763 villages, all weather roads have been constructed to 522 villages.
Replying to a separate question, the Minister said 80 per cent families in Rural areas of the State do not have latrine facilities. Out of 90,20,100 houses in rural areas, 17,33,789 houses do not have latrines. The State Government has fixed a target to provide latrines to all houses by October, 2019.