UP to electrify all hamlets by year-end

With an eye on the Lok Sabha polls scheduled for next year, the Uttar Pradesh government has set a deadline of December 31 this year to connect 62,000 hamlets, which still don't have electricity, with power.

The government's spokesperson and power minister Shrikant Sharma told reporters here today that they had met the target of electrifying all revenue villages by February this year.

They are now working in a "mission mode" to connect all hamlets, small habitations which are not part of any revenue village, he said.

The deadline of December 31, a source said, has been set with an eye on the next Lok Sabha polls as the Model Code of Conduct for it is likely to kick in from early next year.

The ruling BJP wants some key development projects to be completed by then so as to allow it time to highlight them before the masses, the source said.

The Yogi Adityanath-led government, Sharma said, had given 36 lakh new electricity connections between March 19, 2017 -- the day it assumed the charge -- and March this year compared to an average of 6.5 lakh new connections given by previous dispensations annually for a period of 15 years.

The previous Samajwadi Party government electrified 14,500 hamlets annually while the BJP dispensation took power to 60,000 such habitations, he said.

There are a total of 1.78 lakh hamlets in the India's most populous state and the figure will swell by 28,000 more as the state government has brought under its ambit habitations with a minimum population of 25 people.

Sharma also said 4,387 villages -- which have a strong presence of scheduled castes and tribes population -- will have saturation coverage of electricity, LPG and ration cards among other welfare initiatives of the Narendra Modi-led government by May 5, the last day of 'Gram Swaraj Abhiyan' project.

The BJP leadership has been stressing on maximum coverage of the central government's welfare initiatives in the states ruled by the party and has asked its MPs, MLAs and office bearers to fan out across the country to make the rural-centric campaign a success.

Uttar Pradesh is especially important in its scheme of things as it sends the most number of MPs to the Lok Sabha. The BJP had scored a landslide victory in the state in 2009 by winning 71 of its 80 seats while its ally Apna Dal won two.