Govt mulls schemes to encourage performing states under UDAY

The Power Ministry is planning to launch schemes to reward States and discoms for their performance on various parameters under the UDAY scheme meant for revival of debt stressed utilities.
Power Minister Piyush Goyal has asked his top brass to come up with at least one or two schemes to recognise the good performance of States under UDAY as quickly as possible.
"The time has come for some reward schemes. The states and discoms which have done well should be rewarded," Goyal said, while addressing the launch of UDAY Web Portal & Mobile App here today.
The Minster said, "So far, the schemes were designed for badly performing states. Our focus was to provide more money to states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar."

The Ministry is hopeful that UDAY scheme will cover almost 90 per cent of the total discoms' debt of around Rs 4 lakh crore after Tamil Nadu joins the scheme next week.
Tamil Nadu alone has a debt of around Rs 50,000 crore. Under the scheme, States and discoms collectively have issued bonds worth Rs 1.83 lakh crore so far to pay off debt.

Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) was launched in November, 2015. After Telangana and Assam joined UDAY today, the number of States under the scheme has risen to 20. Telangana and Assam will get overall net benefits of Rs 6,116 crore and Rs 1,663 crore respectively.

Goyal is of the view that after the launch of UDAY, the Ministry has to adopt a carrot and stick approach as this will help in supporting the States performing well with more innovative programes.
Goyal also talked about dovetailing other programmes like providing electricity to 100 per cent households, with UDAY scheme to better results.
The Minister said that Gujarat has been the best performing State followed by Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
Under the UDAY scheme, rankings are provided based on the data provided by States till September 30, 2016. However, some States are yet to provide data.

The Minister also talked about two states of which one is Uttar Pradesh which have not provided data for UDAY portal. He appreciated Haryana and Rajasthan for improving peformance of their discoms.
Goyal also suggested making it mandatory for States to provide data under UDAY scheme.
The Minister said, "If you don't give data then how would we know that you have given 24X7 power supply? That applies (not only to these two states) to all states...Support each other (centre and state.