SAUBHAGYA ELECTRIFICATION SCHEME

Minister of Power and New and Renewable Energy informed that under the scheme a total 2.86 crore households have been electrified.
Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana – Saubhagya was launched in 2017.
Achieving universal household electrification, by providing electricity connections to all un-electrified households in rural areas and all poor households in urban areas in the country.

Salient features of the scheme:

Providing last mile connectivity and electricity connections to all un-electrified households in rural areas.
Providing Solar Photo Voltaic (SPV) based standalone systems for un-electrified households located in remote and inaccessible villages where grid extension is not feasible or cost effective.
Providing last mile connectivity and electricity connections to all remaining economically poor un-electrified households in urban areas.
Non-poor urban households are excluded from this scheme.

Issues with rural electrification

Definition of an electrified village under rural electrification scheme (2005)
An electrified village is defined as one that has the following:
provision of basic infrastructure such as distribution transformers and lines in the inhabited locality,
provision of electricity in public places like schools, panchayat office, health centers, dispensaries, and community centers, and
at least 10% of the total number of households in the village are electrified.
Hence according to this definition, a village would be called electrified even if up to 90% of households in it do not have an electricity connection.

Inadequate infrastructure:

It also noted that the infrastructure being provided under the scheme is highly inadequate, unreliable and unsustainable.
The actual electrification requirement of villages must be assessed, and it should be ensured that the state discoms provide electricity to the remaining households in the village.

Supply of electricity

While the rural electrification scheme looks at creating infrastructure, the actual supply of electricity to households rests with the state discoms.
These discoms are already facing huge financial losses and hence are unable to supply electricity to the villages.
Discoms continue to supply subsidised power to agricultural and residential consumers, resulting in revenue losses.
Electricity to below poverty line (BPL) households
Under the scheme, the cost for providing free electricity connection per BPL household is Rs 3,000.
It has been observed that this cost per household may be inadequate.
Due to the low cost, the quantity and the quality of work has been getting compromised leading to poor implementation of the scheme.

SOURCE: THE HINDU, THE ECONOMIC TIMES, PIB

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