Lack of forest clearance holds up RGGVY implementation

Lack of forest clearance has held up work on the Centrally sponsored Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) in around 500 villages of Orissa.

"Due to want of forest clearance, we have been unable to charge 400-500 villages in districts like Kandhamal, Kalahandi, Malkangiri, Nuapada and Bolangir. A meeting of the divisional forest officers would be convened soon at the Chief Secretary level to expedite forest clearance”, Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, minister (energy) told newspersons after a review meeting on RGGVY by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

Out of 15,311 villages meant for electrification under RGGVY, work has been completed in 13,248 villages and close to 8000 villages have been charged, Nayak informed. The scheme is set to be fully implemented in the state by the end of 2012. Ruling out any power shortage in the state, Nayak said the state is in a very comfortable position on the power front.

Sterlite is supplying 250-300 MW of power to the state grid and 4-5 other Independent Power Producers (IPPs) are also set to go on stream by the end of 2012, he said.