Parliamentary panel picks holes in rural electrification scheme

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Energy has called for more robust monitoring and implementation of the rural electrification programme.

In its 26th report on Parliamentary Standing Committee on Energy noted, “Though many States have made commendable progress, some States are still lagging behind”.

To which, the Ministry of Power has responded, “Not every State is in a similar condition...some works could not be undertaken in Jammu and Kashmir because tender work is under process”.

The Committee has raised the issue of non-inclusion of various villages under the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojna. It has also sought details of the mechanism to cross check the list of unelectrified villages prepared by the State governments.

In its response, the Ministry said that electricity is a concurrent subject and State government- controlled Discoms were primarily responsible for electrification data.

The Ministry said, “The Central government relies upon reports submitted by the State discoms for updating the status of village electrification”.

In its recommendations, the Committee has said that during 2016-17, some important heads have “very poor utilisation of funds”.

The report states, “NEEPCO, against their budgetary estimation of ₹166.13 crore, could spend nothing. Similarly, no fund could be utilised under the head of strengthening transmission system in the States of Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim and Power System Improvement Project in North-Eastern Region”.

The report also noted that there was very little utilisation of funds under the Heads of CPRI, Energy Conservation, Integrated Power Development Scheme and PSDF.