Govt brings power to 5,537 villages so far this fiscal

The government said Monday 5,537 villages have been electrified in the current fiscal till date under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojna (DDUGJY).

"258 villages have been electrified across the country during previous week (February 15-21, 2016) under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojna (DDUGJY)," the Ministry of Power said in a statement.

Out of these electrified villages, 120 belong to Odisha, 64 Jharkhand, 41 Assam, 19 Madhya Pradesh, 8 Rajasthan, and 6 Chhattisgarh, it said.

"In 2015-16, 5,537 villages have been electrified till date. Out of the remaining 12,915 villages, 9,026 are to be electrified through grid and 3,381 through off-grid where grid solutions are out of reach due to geographical barriers, (among others)," it said.

In view of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to the nation on Independence Day last year, the government had decided to electrify 18,452 villages within 1,000 days i.E. By May 1, 2018.