May 02, 2018: The Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, R K Singh launched Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana – Saubhagya scheme in Agartala today. Among others, Deputy Chief Minister of the State, Jishnu Deb Varman also graced the programme.
The objective of the scheme is to provide free electricity connections to all households in rural areas and BPL households of urban areas.
In his inaugural speech, RK Singh said, there are around 3.5 crore un-electrified households in the country. “It is pity that electricity did not reach every corner of the country even 71 after Independence”, Singh said and added, after assuming Office, the PM Narendra Modi pledged to ensure that electricity reach in all the villages within 1000 days. “It is indeed a historic milestone that the target was achieved before the deadline 1000 days”, he commented. While electric services are now available in all the villages, there are around 3.5 crore individual un-electrified households across the country and these un-electrified households will be covered under Saubhagya scheme within December 2018, he said.
Hailing the progress of works under the Scheme in Tripura, the Minister said, fund will not be a constraint and the Central Government is ready to extend all sorts of assistance including financial and man-power for successful implementation of the scheme.
“It is really a challenging task to accomplish the dream of Modi as several un-electrified areas are located in remote hill areas or in Maoist infested areas. Considering prevailing geographical and socio-political hindrances, the Government is providing all possible assistance to concerned State Governments to achieve the target of illuminating all the un-electrified households”, Singh said.
