K’taka, Assam, UP lag behind in race

Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Assam are the large states lagging in terms of performance in the National Democratic Alliance government’s ambitious “Saubhagya” household electrification scheme with 18.8 million households electrified since October 11 last year with another 11 million awaiting electrification. The scheme was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 25, 2017. The numbers mean 62% of the households without electricity as of October 10 last year, now have electricity. India has around 250 million households.

While Karnataka is ruled by an alliance of the Janata Dal (S) and the Congress, UP and Assam are ruled by Bharatiya Janata Party

governments.

According to data available with the Power Ministry till November 1, the government has spent ~10544 crore on the scheme with 10 states achieving 100% electrification. The Centre has allocated a total of ~16320 crore for electricity connections and infrastructure support. The states which have achieved their targets are Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Puducherry, Punjab and Tamil Nadu. However, the government is concerned with the pace of household electrification in Uttar Pradesh and Assam with only 44 and 40 per cent of the unelectrified households as of last year being electrified. Prime Minister Modi has said that all households across India will be electrified by 2019. Karnataka has only completed 37% of its work.

The NDA made electrification one of the main achievements it touted when it completed four years in power in May and analysts say that this will be one of the main developmental achievements it talks about in the campaign for the parliamentary elections next year.