Solarisation of 4000 Agri pumps approved
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 26: The Administrative Council (AC) which met here under the chairmanship of the Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha gave its approval to enhancement of UT subsidy from present Rs.16666 to Rs.70326 for eligible Beneficiary Led Construction (BLC) beneficiaries of PMAY (U) in lieu of Interest Free Loan (IFL) scheme.
Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, Advisor to the Lieutenant Governor; Atal Dulloo, Chief Secretary and Mandeep Kumar Bhandari, Principal Secretary to Lieutenant Governor attended the meeting. The beneficiaries under this scheme include identified BLC beneficiaries of PMAY (U) who on the date of issuance of the allied government order have not completed their dwelling units. This step is slated to benefit presently 26419 households in preliminary stage.
The proposal aims to provide additional financial assistance to identified beneficiaries of PMAY(U) under BLC vertical which will help them in completion of construction of their houses within Mission period i.e Dec 2024.
In the UT, beneficiaries face challenges in contributing to the larger house construction component and this decision has been taken to facilitate the beneficiaries in completion of their houses with enhanced assistance.
Meanwhile Administrative Council also gave its approval to solarisation of 4000 Nos. of existing individual grid-connected agriculture pumps under Component-C of Pradhan Mantri Kissan Urja Suraksha Evam Uthaan Mahaabhiyan (PM-KUSUM) Scheme having the Grid Connected Solar Power Plant capacity in the range of 1kW to 15kW.
Under this scheme, the farmers will be able to use the generated solar power to meet the irrigation needs and the excess solar power will be sold to Distribution companies (DISCOMs). The DISCOMS in turn have to make payment to the farmers for export of unused power to the grid as per the tariff determined by JKSERC.
The solarisation of agriculture pumps besides curbing pollution will provide the farmers with a reliable source of irrigation through solar energy driven pumps and prevent the revenue losses incurred by the DISCOMs on account of energizing the electrical irrigation pumps at subsidized energy tariff of Rs 0.66/- per unit against an average power purchase tariff of Rs 3.50/- per unit.