Centre asks states to use allocated funds for electrification of all households by Dec

Union Power Minister R K Singh today asked all states to use allocated funds under various schemes, including IPDS and DDUGJY, to achieve the electrification target for all households by year-end.

"We are giving funds. But those allocated funds are not being used. We are not able to use money. If we don't use that (funds), we would not be able to reach any home (or electrify them)," Singh said.

He was addressing a conference of power and renewable energy ministers of states & UTs here.

He underlined how Rs 42,000 crore was sanctioned under Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY), but just Rs 9,000 crore has been spent by states and UTs.

Moreover, under Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS), a total of Rs 75,000 crore was sanctioned.

About the household electrification scheme Saubhagya, he said: "We have larger target ahead of us. How can we remove poverty without providing energy access to all. We will provide electricity to all households by December 31, 2018 and not by March 31, 2019 as envisaged earlier in the scheme."
He said:"Power generation companies should be allowed to supply power from more efficient plants as tariff is low there. This will not require any change in the power purchase agreements. This will help bring down the cost of power."
On the unscheduled load shedding or power cuts, he said:"If there is load shedding we would impose penalty (from April 1, 2019). All of us have agreed on this earlier. Besides, if we don't plug in losses, reduce cross subsidy and transfer subsidy by direct benefit transfer, we cannot improve the financial health of discoms."