Power for all by 2012: Shinde

The government today said 53,000 villages in the country have been electrified and promised 'electricity for all' by the year 2012.

"So far, 53,000 villages have been electrified and by 2012 everyone will get electricity," Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde told reporters here.

The Ministry of Power has set a target to electrify 1,20,000 villages in the current Five Year Plan (2007-12) under the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY).

RGGVY was launched in 2005 with the objective to electrify all villages in the country where there is no power.

Under the scheme, the government provides 90 per cent subsidy for electricity distribution infrastructure and 100 per cent subsidy for providing power connections to the rural household.

The government has already provided electricity connections to 18-lakh Below Poverty Line (BPL) households out of the targeted 50 lakh such families this fiscal.

It has earmarked a total capital subsidy of Rs 33,000 crore for providing electricity connections and for the distribution infrastructure to the rural household.

Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) is the nodal agency for the implementation of RGGVY.

"A subsidy of Rs 28,000 crore has been provided for the XIth plan period for rural electrification. During the previous five year plan period, we got a subsidy  of Rs 5,000 crore," Chairman and Managing Director REC P Uma Shankar told PTI.

Shankar added, "We have made arrangements for electrifying 1,20,000 village during XIth plan period."