Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Aug 23: Finding no justification in high cost of electrification of villages projected by the Power Development Department, the Union Ministry of Power has sanctioned only Rs 532 crore worth projects for Jammu and Kashmir against projection of Rs 1249 crore under Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) with the directions for revisiting the Detailed Project Reports for electrification of un-electrified villages.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that Jammu and Kashmir’s Power Development Department has submitted 21 proposals worth Rs 1249.69 crore covering 21 districts for consideration under Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana. The proposal for Srinagar district has not been covered as the works in this district are mostly covered under Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS), which is meant for urban areas.
During the meeting of the Monitoring Committee on DDUGJY held recently under the chairmanship of Secretary, Ministry of Power, it was observed that there are 6564 villages in Jammu and Kashmir as per the Census of 2011 and out of these 108 villages are yet to be electrified. Twenty five such villages have already been covered under XII Plan and balance 83 villages have been proposed under DDUGJY.
With the mention that there will be no un-electrified village in Jammu and Kashmir after coverage under DDUGJY and XII Plan, the State projected total cost of these 83 villages at Rs 86.53 crore (Rs one crore for each village).
Finding no justification in projecting more than Rs one crore electrification cost per village, the Secretary, Ministry of Power observed, “the cost per village in case of Leh, Kargil and Rajouri areas is very high and State should consider the option of electrification of such villages through off-grid solutions after due techno-economic considerations”.
According to the sources, the Monitoring Committee has directed that the high cost of electrification of villages should be re-visited by Rural Electrification Corporation with J&K Government. “Till this exercise is done, no funds would be sanctioned for electrification of villages”, sources said quoting directions of the Monitoring Committee.
As far as metering is concerned, the Monitoring Committee observed that there are 211 number 66/33 KV feeders in J&K out of which 93 are un-metered. Similarly, out of total 1746 number 11/6.66 KV feeders, 1505 feeders have yet not been metered. Under this component, the J&K projected requirement of Rs 96.38 crore for metering of 129 number 66/33 KV feeders and 690 number 11/6.66 KV feeders. “This component has been fully approved by the Monitoring Committee”, sources informed.
About System Strengthening and Access to Rural Households, the J&K projected requirement of Rs 990.56 crore by mentioning that out of 14.97 lakh Rural Households in the State, 3.29 lakh are yet to be electrified. However, the Monitoring Committee approved Rs 357.47 crore only with the directions to the J&K PDD to expedite award of 12th Plan Rural Electrification Projects.
As far as feeder separation component is concerned, J&K proposed works amounting to Rs 69.20 crore and the same were approved in totality by the Monitoring Committee. Similarly, the Monitoring Committee has approved Rs 7.01 crore as projected by the State for power related infrastructure in six villages identified under Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) by the Members of Parliament.
In this way, the Monitoring Committee has approved total project cost of Rs 532.71 crore for J&K under DDUGJY with the directions to the Rural Electrification Corporation, which is the nodal agency under the scheme, to ensure fulfillment of all conditionalities in accordance with the prescribed guidelines for implementation of the scheme.
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