Power yet to reach 924 villages in Bihar

Patna: Out of a total of 2,747 unelectrified villages in Bihar till August last year, 1,823 villages have been electrified till date. In the last seven days, 209 villages have been electrified under the Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY). According to latest data of the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC), only 924 villages are yet to be electrified in Bihar. Work is in progress in 194 of them. Only 318 days are left to achieve the target of complete rural electrification in the country. Several districts have achieved cent per cent target of electrification. These include Kishanganj (110 out of 110), Madhepura (9/9), Madhubani (44/44), Munger (28/28), Muzaffarpur (43/42), Munger (28/28), Jamui (50/50), Jehanabad (11/11), Patna (71/71), Purnia (74/74), Siwan (2/2), Supaul (9/9) and Vaishali (39/39). On the other hand, some districts like Saharsa (20/101), Saran (87/138) and Katihar (348/1003) are still far from the target. PM Narendra Modi, in his Independence Day speech of 2015, had announced that all unelectrified villages would be electrified within 1,000 days. As of April 1, 2015, according to government figures, 18,452 Indian villages were still unelectrified. Of them, 7766 have since been electrified. A total of 10,231 villages are yet to be electrified. The remaining 455 villages are not inhabitated, said an official. To make the process transparent, real-time data on villages being electrified has been made available to the public through a mobile app and a Web dashboard called GARV, said REC’s Bihar’s regional supervisor Dinbandhu. Alongside, 309 gram vidyut abhiyantas were deployed by the government to monitor the electrification process and enter the data on the GARV application, he said. One can see the status of the rural electrification through mobile app. Rural electrification has been an enduring challenge for successive governments. However, unelectrified villages present an enormous challenge as they are often located in inaccessible or left-wing extremism-affected areas. Recently, Union power minister Piyush Goyal asked the public and the media to scrutinize rural electrification work of states and ask for accountability. With enhanced funds, pro-people guidelines, constant monitoring and speedy delivery, the Union government has embarked on a time-bound mission not only to electrify 18,452 villages much before the scheduled time but also to take it to the next level to provide connectivity to all the households in these villages and meet the ultimate goal of 24X7 power for all.



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