Power to 4cr houses a challenge for Centre

Providing electricity connections to more than four crore rural houses at a cost of `16,000 crore under the ambitious ‘Saubhagya’ electrification scheme of the Union power ministry has become a challenge for electricity distributing companies (discoms) across the country. There is no power supply in 4,05,30,031 houses in the country, and to complete the job by December 31, 2018, new power connections to 90,067 houses will have to be given daily for the next 15 months, from October 2017 to December 2018. Power experts say it is a near impossible task in the present scenario, where Discoms are facing an acute shortage of manpower and material to say nothing of finance.

According to the Union power ministry, universal household electrification under the Saubhagya scheme will cover 30 million households in the country, 25 million in rural and 5 million in urban areas. To meet the target as per deadline, the government will have to electrify about 2.7 million households every month to cover more than 40 million households in the next 15 months. The current rate of electrification is 4.75 lakh households per month, according to the Union power ministry data.

Under the Saubhagya scheme, the government will provide connections to the four crore families who do not have electricity currently. No money will be charged to the poor, but consumers will pay for the power consumed though state governments will supply it at a subsidised rate.

The average transmission and distribution losses stand at 23 per cent and power theft is a major problem in almost all states. When free power is supplied to the agriculture sector, even if for restricted hours, the consumption is more than the sanctioned load of the tubewell.

All the Discoms in the country are in a financial crisis despite joining the UDAY scheme. They are not in a position to purchase additional power because of their financial problems.

Chairman of the All India Power Engineers’ Federation, Shailendra Dubey, told this newspaper that there is no upfront allocation of funds under the Saubhagya scheme. He pointed out that if the Central government is keen to achieve the targets of Saubhagya in the given time, both Central and state governments will have to review the present energy policy and strengthen the state owned Discoms instead of relying on the private sector because it is only state owned Discoms on whose shoulders the Saubhagya scheme’s success rests.

THERE IS NO power supply in 4,05,30,031 houses in India. To complete the job by December 31, 2018, new power connections to 90,067 houses will have to be given daily for the next 15 months, from October 2017 to December 2018.