Uttar Pradesh has urged the Central government to extend the continuation of the Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (Saubhagya scheme) in the state till March 31 in view of paucity of infrastructure required to give more electricity connections in a number of villages and localities.
Principal secretary, energy, and UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) chairman Arvind Kumar wrote a letter in this regard to the Union power ministry a few days before the second phase of the scheme was to come to an end on December 31. The second phase was launched in August last year on the request of the state.
“Although the Centre has not yet taken a call on our request, we are sure it will agree to the request by allowing us to run the scheme till March 31, 2020,” energy department sources said.
They said the state had requested the Centre also allow people to apply for new electricity connections under the scheme till March 31.
Under the Saubhagya launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 25, 2017 to achieve the objective of universal household electrification, free electricity connections are provided to all families in rural and urban areas.
UP provided more than one crore (10 million) electricity connections under the scheme that was closed on March 31, 2019. Realising that some 20 lakh (two million) households were still left unelectrified for various reasons, Uttar Pradesh requested the Centre to launch the second phase of the scheme to cover all such households if they were willing to get a free power connection.
{{/usCountry}}UP provided more than one crore (10 million) electricity connections under the scheme that was closed on March 31, 2019. Realising that some 20 lakh (two million) households were still left unelectrified for various reasons, Uttar Pradesh requested the Centre to launch the second phase of the scheme to cover all such households if they were willing to get a free power connection.
{{/usCountry}}UPPCL targeted 12 lakh (1.2 million) households, mostly rural, to cover in the second phase. Progress in the second phase has been found to be quite poor. Sources said only around 3.50 lakh (350,000) power connections had been given till December 31, which was one-fourth of the target.
Sources said there were thousands of expanding and scattered rural and urban households or newly developed localities where the power infrastructure in the name of transformers, poles, lines still did not exist for giving power connections.
“We are spending around Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) on creating the additional infrastructure so that power connections can be provided to all the willing families under the second phase of Saubhagya,” they said.
According to sources, lack of infrastructure alone was not the issue.
“The problem also lies in the fact that a large number of households, which have been used to using electricity illegally, are averse to taking a formal power connection,” they claimed, adding, “We are trying to motivate such people and compelling them by conducting raids for theft of electricity at their premises.”