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Solar Rooftop: UP to light up 25 lakh low-income households
UP aims to light up 25 lakh low-income households through rooftop solar power under PM Suryodaya Yojna, offering free electricity and government subsidies.
Uttar Pradesh aims to light up 25 lakh low-income households through rooftop solar power as a part of the PM Suryodaya Yojna.
Announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 22, immediately after his return to New Delhi after the consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, the PM Suryodya Yojna aims to solarize one crore households nationwide. The programme promises 300 units of free electricity per month, generated by solar rooftops.
People in the know of things said that Uttar Pradesh was devising a comprehensive strategy to cover maximum number of eligible households under the scheme under which beneficiaries are entitled to get government subsidy up to 70% on rooftops of 1kw to 2 kw and 60% on the rooftops of 3 kw capacity and in reducing per centage up to 10 kw.
“Though the Central government is expected to fix the state-wise targets after the scheme is formally launched nationally, which is likely in the first week of March, we have fixed a target of covering 25 lakh households under the 1 kw-2 kw load category, whose monthly consumption is 300 units or less,” said a senior official of the alternative energy department said.
The department has found that there are around 2 crore households in the 1kw-2kw load slab in U.P. “We understand we can easily provide benefits of the new scheme to at least 25 lakh of the 2 crore low-income households in the state,” the official said.
Prioritizing the new scheme, chief secretary (CS) Durga Shankar Mishra while holding a weekly video conference on Tuesday directed commissioners and district magistrates to make wider publicity of the PM’s initiative through advertisements and hold camps ensuring maximum participation of people in the camps.
The CS also suggested fixing targets for all the sub-division officers (SDOs) under the UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL).
According to the official, UP had decided to follow the Gujarat model with regard to implementation of the Suryodaya scheme. “In Gujarat, substation-wise targets have been fixed following which 25,000 willing households are being registered every day for the scheme.
“We are going to fix SDO-wise targets as discussed in the chief secretary’s meeting on Tuesday,” he said. “Registration will be done through a mobile application and website,” he added.
The subsidy amount under the scheme will be directly transferred to the bank accounts of the selected beneficiaries through direct debit.
