The Hindu Business Line : States drag their feet on rural electrification policy

New Delhi May 6 The Centre's much-touted Rural Electrification Policy, aimed at providing access to electricity to all households over the next two years, appears to be a non-starter due to lack of response from States.

According to the policy, notified on August 23 last year, all State Governments were required to prepare and notify a rural electrification plan to achieve the goal of providing access to all households within six months of the policy being notified — by end-February. Not even a single State had, however, forwarded its plans to the Centre by the stipulated deadline.

`Essential prerequisite'

"States have been dawdling on preparing their respective rural electrification plans, which is an essential prerequisite and is aimed at ascertaining where the power is going to come from to electrify households and how State Governments plan to go ahead with the scheme.

The lacklustre response is despite the Power Ministry having written to the Chief Secretaries of all States to expedite the preparation of their respective Plans," a Government official said.

The Centre, meanwhile, could be looking at limiting the role of Central public sector utilities, including NTPC Ltd and Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd, in the task of rural electrification. The Government had earlier pressed the CPSUs into service to assist State electricity boards in the work of rural electrification and distribution reforms.

"When the States themselves are not serious about rural electrification, it would not be right to divert the attention of CPSUs in carrying out what is essentially the job of SEBs and their contractors," the official said.

Reasonable rates

The rural electrification plan mainly aims at providing access to electricity to all households by 2009, with emphasis on "quality and reliable power supply at reasonable rates." It also aims at extending a minimum lifeline consumption of one unit of electricity per household per day as a merit good by year 2012.

Under the proposed rural electrification plan, States should have mapped and detailed the electrification delivery mechanisms (grid or standalone) in the wake of issues such as the available technologies, environmental norms, fuel availability, number of un-electrified households, and distance from the existing grid. States have been, so far, slow in carrying out these prerequisites, which are keys to the implementation of the policy. For the purpose of rural electrification, a village would mean a census village.

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