Yogi’s UP set to miss electrification target under Saubhagya Yojana

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made a promise to people of Uttar Pradesh to electrify every household by the end of this year under Saubhagya Yojana. But, most likely, UP is set to miss the target as there are 1.68 crore houses that need to be electrified and if the state government would want to meet the target, it needs to electrify 60,000 households daily – which is practically impossible.

It is not only the Saubhagya Yojana which may not meet the deadline, the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) has also been struggling to meet the target under Gram Swaraj Abhiyan. This scheme was launched on April 14 and by May 5, UPPCL was required to provide free electricity connection to each and every household in Dalit and OBC-dominated 3,387 villages across the state.

In the recently released government figures, it has stated that it has been able to give electricity to only 4.5 lakh households against the target of 14.5 lakh through the ‘Gram Swaraj Abhiyan’.

“UPPCL was given very little time to complete the electrification work in 3,387 villages. The Gram Swarajya scheme was launched on April 14 and was scheduled to be completed by May 5. The deadline was later increased to May 20. We are trying to meet the target but yes we have missed the deadline,” said PP Singh, chief engineer of Rural electrification secondary system planning organisation (RESSPO).

As per the figures released by the UP government during the last fiscal 2017-18, as many as 35 Lakh households were provided free electricity connection. Under Saubhagya Scheme from October 2017 to March 31, 2018, 15.17 lakh connections were provided and during this fiscal 1.68 crore families will be provided the electricity
connection.

Another senior official in UPPCL said that if one checks the government’s performance it is clear that in a fiscal year, only 35 lakh households were given electricity. With this background how can one believe that the Corporation would be able to electrify 1.68 crore houses by the end of this year.

“How can the Power Corporation meet the target without resources. It is easy to set targets sitting in AC rooms but difficult to meet them at ground because no planning goes in declaration of these schemes,” he added.

He points out that Union minister of energy RK Singh, during his visit to Lucknow on April 26, talked about PM’s deadline of 1,000 days for electrification of all the villages. What happened to that dead line everyone knows. Similar announcements were made regarding Saubhagya Yojana and there is no doubt that the UP government will not be able to meet the target.

The UPPCL has already highlighted the Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) losses because of increase in power supply to villages. The Centre has also asked the UP government to bring down this loss to 15 per cent, which officials say is not possible unless there is increase in resources.