In 2015-16, 5,279 villages have been electrified, a power ministry statement has said. (Representational Image)
253 villages in the country were electrified within the last week under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojna (DDUGJY), the government said today.
Out of the 253 villages, 111 are in Odisha, 81 in Assam, 40 in Jharkhand, 13 in Rajasthan, 4 in Bihar, 3 in Madhya Pradesh and 1 in Uttar Pradesh, a power ministry statement said.
In view of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to the nation on Independence Day last year, the government had decided to electrify 18,452 villages within 1,000 days i.e. by May 1, 2018.
The scheme was kicked off in July last year by Prime Minister Modi as part of power sector reforms in rural areas with a view to ensuring round-the-clock electricity supply to farmers and rural households.
The project has been taken up in a mission mode and the strategy for electrification consists of squeezing the implementation schedule to 12 months and dividing the village electrification process into 12-stage milestones with defined timelines for monitoring.
In 2015-16, 5,279 villages have been electrified so far, the staetment said.
Of the remaining 13,173 villages, 9,228 are to be electrified through grid and 3,398 off-grid, while 547 villages are to be electrified by state governments, it added.
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