Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, May 19: Union Minister of State for Power (Independent Charge), Piyush Goyal today said that because of `sensationalization’ and `wrong’ media reporting of ground situation in Jammu and Kashmir, private contractors were not participating in bidding process for rural electrification projects in the State with the result that only 10 percent of un-electrified households have been so far electrified under Government of India’s ambitious Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana.
“Unfortunately private players don’t come forward to Jammu and Kashmir because of sensationalization and wrong media reporting of ground situation in the State and hence there is great difficulty in finding contractors to implement projects in the State,” he said in response to a query while addressing a pan-India press conference through video conferencing from New Delhi today.
The Minister informed that by April 30, 2017, only 32 out of 134 un-electrified villages in the State were electrified under Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana, which was launched by the Government of India on November 20, 2014.
The progress is very disappointing in comparison to the achievement at national level as out of 18,452 un-electrified census villages in the country, 13,469 villages have been electrified up to May 15, 2017.
Admitting that out of around 3 lakh un-electrified households in J&K, 2 lakh, 70 thousand were still un-electrified, the Power Minister informed that keeping in view the difficulty faced due to non-participation of private contractors, Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd has now entered into a MoU with the State Government for execution of projects and speeding up the left over work.
Thus holding media responsible for poor results of rural electrification, Piyush Goyal sought to justify his point by stating that he had just talked to the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who was in Srinagar today in connection with GST Council meeting and the latter told him that situation was normal in Valley barring a few incidents of trying to incite trouble.
In response to another query on poor supply of electricity in several areas, including towns of the State contrary to the Government claims and target of providing 24 hour power supply to everyone by May 15, 2022, Piyush Goyal made it clear that unless and until huge Transmission and Distribution losses are reduced, the situation can not improve. “In some districts of J&K, T&D losses are even 71 percent and in such a situation, no Government can provide round the clock power supply to its people,” he said and appealed media to educate masses for paying electricity bills for reducing T&D losses.
“If everybody pays the electricity bill, the T&D losses will get reduced and we can have round the clock power supply,” he said.
Interestingly, the Union Minister refused to answer a query with regard to Central Government’s stand on J&K’s insistence for transfer of some Power Projects from NHPC to the State even as the demand has been a part of the Agenda of Alliance between ruling PDP and BJP.
Earlier, giving an overview of rural electrification under Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY), an integral scheme covering all aspects of rural power distribution, the Union Minister criticized the previous Congress-led UPA Government for its lopsided approach in providing electricity to un-electrified villages and households.
“The situation can be gauged from the fact that under then UPA Government’s scheme for 100 percent electrification by 2009, 60 percent households were still deprived of electricity as per 2011 census,” he said and informed that under DDUGJY, out of 18,452 un-electrified villages in the country, 13469 were electrified up to May 15, 2017. “May 1, 2018 is the deadline while electrification of only 3997 villages is pending and we are hopeful to accomplish the task prior to the time limit,” he added.
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