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The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Energy has flagged the consistently low budgetary allocation to the Ministry of Power as detrimental to India’s electricity sector.
The committee, on Monday, presented in Parliament its report on the Ministry’s demand for grants.
“The committee notes that the Ministry of Power has been allocated ₹15,322 crore though it had projected a demand of ₹30,155 crore. The scrutiny of the Demands for Grants of the Ministry of Power for the previous years has revealed that the Ministry has constantly been allocated funds less than 50 per cent of its original demands,” the report said.
For 2020-21, the Ministry had posted a demand of ₹33,366 crore and got only ₹15,874 crore. For financial years 2019-2020 and 2018- 2019, too, there was a similarly large gap between the Ministry’s demand for grants and the eventual allocation by the Ministry of Finance, the report noted.
“The committee also find that the track record of the Ministry of Power as far as utilisation of funds is concerned in the previous three years viz. 2019-20, 2018-19 and 2017-18 has been satisfactory as whatever fund had been allocated, the Ministry was able to fully utilise it,” it added.
“In the considered view of the committee, the past performance of the Ministry of Power merits enhancement of its budgetary provisions as its programmes are vital for the development of power sector which will not only lead to significant improvement in the reliable supply of electricity and its access to all but also result in financial saving for the government in the long run,” the report said.
The Ministry of Power is incharge of implementing the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojna and the Integrated Power Development Scheme to upgrade the country’s electricity infrastructure. The two flagship schemes have correspondingly received half of the funds that the Ministry had asked for.
The largest decline, however, was in the funds allocated for improvement of power infrastructure in North-Eastern States, where only one-fourth of the Ministry’s demand was met.
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