Power Minister Piyush Goyal asserted that there is no dearth of power and coal in the country.
Work is on to meet the government's target of electrifying every village in the country a year before the 2018 deadline set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal said in Mathura.
The minister asserted that there is no dearth of power and coal in the country.
"No power plant in the country has to temporarily shut down for dearth of coal which shows that there is no shortage. We can now supply any amount of power to any state on demand," he said.
The minister was addressing a meeting of Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) last evening.
Referring to the Narenda Modi government's pledge to electrify all villages by 2018, he said, "We have decided to fulfill it at least a year ahead of the deadline."
Mr Goyal said, "So far 38 per cent of the work has been done as 6,114 villages have been electrified."
Batting for increased use of LED, he said, "It is being made available to common man at Rs 74 against its earlier market price of Rs 450 since transparency has been maintained in bidding etc.
"Our target is to ensure LED in every house of the country by 2019 by pressing sale of 77 crore bulbs. It would also save 2.5 crore units of power," he asserted.
The minister spoke on welfare schemes initiated by Modi government and asked activists of BJYM to make the rural people aware about them.
Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar alleged that various projects, including those related to defence, were held up during UPA regime due to delay in green nod.
"Road construction in the border areas was held up owing to environmental clearance. I have not only given green signal to this scheme but have told services chiefs that now environmental clearance would not be required for defence schemes," Mr Javadekar said.
The minister attacked the Congress, saying a new challenge to maintain healthy tradition of parliamentary system has now come up due to the conduct of opposition party which is "creating hurdles as it sees no scope to come back to power".
"Since Congress looted the country for 60 years, it has to remain in 'exile' at least for 14 years," he said.
Union Minister for Small Enterprise Kalaraj Mishra advised activists not to be deterred by criticism.
"Take a lesson from Prime Minister Modi, who is working hard to overcome poverty and unemployment without bothering about criticism," he added.
"The day is not for off when India would become 'maha shakti (super power). Even the US President has said that Modi is a man of action," he said.
Union HRD Minister Smrati Irani claimed that the facility to defence personnel for getting higher education through Indira Gandhi National Open University was withdrawn by Congress Government.
"Now we have cleared the facility and degrees to 45 Air Force and 3.73 lakh Army personnel were awarded," she said.
She also spoke of providing free NCERT books up to class 12 in Hindi, Engilish and Urdu languages through website.