PM to interact with Saubhagya scheme beneficiaries today

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday will interact with the beneficiaries of Saubhagya scheme across India, via NAMO app.

Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana - 'Saubhagya' scheme was launched by the Prime Minister on September 25, 2017.

Under Saubhagya, free electricity connections to all households (both APL and poor families) will be provided in rural areas and poor families in urban areas.

There are around 4 crore un-electrified households in the country which are targeted for providing electricity connections by December 2018. Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) has been designated as the nodal agency for the Saubhagya scheme.

Under the scheme, DISCOMs will also organize camps in villages or cluster of villages to facilitate on-the-spot filling up of application forms including release of electricity connections to households.

DISCOMs/Power Department will also adopt innovative mechanism through dedicated web-portal/Mobile App for collection/consolidation of application form in electronic mode and also capture process of release of electricity connections.

At the time of the launch, the Government of India promised to spend a total of Rs 16,320 crore in this massive project to provide electricity and to give the nation a new light.

The rural household expenditure was estimated to be Rs 14025 crore, with Rs 1732.50 crore is being allocated for urban households.

The gross budgetary support for the scheme was told to be Rs 12,320 crore.

The Government said, under the Saubhagya Yojana general category, states would get a grant of 60 percent from the government while the special category states would be bestowed with 85 percent grant.

The state government also contributed 10 percent of the total expenditure for the general state and five percent for special category state.

The remaining amount would be covered by loans from financial institutions and banks.