All households to be electrified by December-end against earlier target of March 2019, says power minister R K Singh

New Delhi: Power Minister R K Singh on Wednesday exuded confidence that 100 percent household electrification under the Saubhagya scheme would be achieved by the end of 2018 as only 50 lakh families are left to be covered. The Union and the state power ministers in a meeting in July had decided to provide electricity connections to all families by December 2018 against the earlier target of March 2019. [caption id=“attachment_4248159” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] Singh in an open article said that power consumer base was increasing at a rate of one lakh per day and estimates suggested that the number of households left were less than 50 lakh. “At this rate, almost 50 more days required to achieve 100 percent household electrification. If we do it faster, less days to achieve the goal,” he added. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September 2017 had launched the Rs 16,320-crore ‘Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana’ - Saubhagya to achieve universal household electrification. “We have set an ambitious goal for ourselves – the goal of providing access to 24x7 power for all in the country. Access to power here represents not only the connectivity to the network but also includes the availability of requisite infrastructure across the power sector value chain to ensure supply of quality and reliable power. And we are well on our way to achieve our goal,” the minister mentioned. India crossed the milestone of electrifying 2 crore households under the Saubhagya scheme, which started in October 2017, on 19 November, 2018. He lauded that the initiatives of the government have helped the country in achieving 24th rank in 2018 on World Bank’s Ease of Getting Electricity as against 111th rank in 2014.