Historic moment for Modi! All villages in India electrified; the way forward
Updated: April 29, 2018 11:55:43 AM
In a major historic moment for the Narendra Modi-led government, all Indian villages now have access to electricity, and the Narendra Modi-led government has achieved the historic target of electrifying all Indian villages.
The Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) for Rs 7,5893 crore is being termed as a game changer moment seeks to achieve universal electricity access.
In a major historic moment for the Narendra Modi-led government, all Indian villages now have access to electricity, and the Narendra Modi-led government has achieved the historic target of electrifying all Indian villages. Yesterday evening at 5.30 pm, Leisang village in the Senapati district of Manipur was the last village to be brought on the national power grid. In 2014, the government had promised to bring electricity to every citizen. Taking stock of the development, PM Narendra Modi tweeted, "28th April 2018 will be remembered as a historic day in the development journey of India. Yesterday, we fulfilled a commitment due to which the lives of several Indians will be transformed forever! I am delighted that every single village of India now has access to electricity."
Hence, rural electrification took the centrestage, which included connecting more than 18,000 villages by the April-18. Government data reveals that all of India's 597,464 census villages have been electrified. Notably, after the Narendra Modi-led government assumed charge in 2014, there were 18,452 un-electrified census villages. There were various challenges too, as it was found that an additional 1275 villages also didn't have electricity access.
28th April 2018 will be remembered as a historic day in the development journey of India. Yesterday, we fulfilled a commitment due to which the lives of several Indians will be transformed forever! I am delighted that every single village of India now has access to electricity.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 29, 2018
While it is a major historic moment, a Bloomberg report estimates that almost 32 million homes are still left in the dark: as the government deems a village "electrified" if 10 percent of its households, as well as public places such as schools and health centers, have access to electricity. Accordingly, while all villages have 'access' to power, less than 8 percent of the newly electrified villages had all homes electrified, the data showed, leaving swaths of rural India without power, which can hinder economic growth, basic health care and education.
But, the government realises more needs to be done. Hence, the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) for Rs 7,5893 crore is being termed as a game changer moment seeks to achieve universal electricity access. Union minister Piyush Goyal tweeted,"PM Narendra Modi set a target of 1000 days for electrifying every single Indian village and thanks to Power Minister Raj K Singh and his team, the target has been achieved before time."
The government has also planned to invest $2.5 billion to provide power connections to nearly every household by the end of March 2019, just a few weeks shy of general elections. A recent Bloomberg report revealed that about 13 percent of the almost 36.8 million homes identified in October as needing power, citing government data. "To meet its next deadline, it has to accelerate its monthly pace by more than threefold, according to Bloomberg calculations using government data," said the agency.