Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Oct 5: The Government has demanded around Rs 1,200 crore from the Centre to provide electricity connection to nearly three lakh households in the State.
“There are 1,09175 households in Kashmir Valley and 1,87169 in Jammu region which are yet to be electrified,” Minister In-charge Power and Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh said in a written reply to a question by National Conference Legislator Shehnaz Ganai in the Legislative Council.
The State Government said the plan to provide electricity connection to these households has been included under Union Government’s recently announced Deen Dayal Upadhaya Grameen Jyoti Yojna (DDUGJY).
According to a report submitted by the Power Development Department, the total cost to provide electricity connection to nearly three lakh households is Rs 1249.7 crores.
However, the monitoring committee of the Union Government in its meeting on August 6, this year, has approved only Rs 530.08 crores for the whole State, the Government said in the reply.
The department is pursuing the case for sanction of the entire cost mentioned in the Detailed Project Report with the Union Ministry of Power, Singh said.
Jammu district has the highest number of 57,986 unelectrified households in the State, followed by Rajouri which has 32,966 such households and Kupwara (32,577), the reply said.
Udhampur district, in Jammu region, has the lowest number of 2,183 households without electricity, followed by 4,427 such households in Ganderbal in central Kashmir.
The State Government also said that it was taking steps for transfer of Dulhasti and Uri hydro power projects to the State as promised in the common minimum programme of the coalition partners’ agenda for alliance.
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