Rural electrification scheme to miss target

The government's ambitious scheme RGGVY to electrify rural India will miss the target as fewer than 50 per cent of the selected 1,25,000 villages have so far been electrified, according to official estimates.

The five-year Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojana, with the aim of reaching power to 1,25,000 villages and 2,34,000 BPL families, was started in April 2005, but only 61,360 villages could be electrified till last month.

To achieve the RGGVY target, the government will have to electrify more than 63,000 villages in about a year, which is a tall order.

The RGGVY scheme will close on March 31, 2010, with a majority of rural BPL families still deprived of electricity.

"Though there would be considerable shortfall in the achievement of target for BPL households, the target of electrification of one lakh un-electrified villages would be achieved," a source told PTI, quoting an official document of the ministry of power, which has sought a minimum budgetary support of Rs 9,000 crore (Rs 90 billion) for 2009-10.

"There has been some slippage in the programme as continuity in implementation was lost by delayed approval of the RGGVY. 2009-10 being the last year, speeding up the implementation of the programme has to be done to achieve the aforementioned targets," the source added.

The power ministry had estimated that budgetary support of at least Rs 9,000 crore would be required for the next one year.

At the vote-on-account stage, Rs 9,000 crore was proposed for the scheme. However, the Planning Commission has approved Rs 6,000 crore (Rs 60 billion) for it.

Rural Electrification Corporation, a navratna public sector company, which has also been the nodal agency for the flagship project, has said that electrification has been completed in nearly 62,000 villages, while 60 lakh (6 million) rural families living below the poverty line have been given free electricity connection.