Govt soon to launch 'Saubhagya' scheme to provide 24X7 electricity to all

New Delhi, September 24: Minister of State for Power (IC), RK Singh said that PM Modi is set to launch 'Saubhagya' scheme, on Sep 25, marking the birth anniversary of Pt Deendayal Upadhyaya.

Singh also promised legislative changes to ensure power purchasing agreements are honoured. "We will ensure that PPAs are signed and adhered to. We are going to change the law to see that those PPAs are enforced," he said.

PM Modi will address the BJP's national executive on September 25 in an open session which will be telecast live on Doordarshan. The speech comes at a time when there are concerns over economic slowdown.

The government of India took the initiative to electrify all the villages under rural electrification scheme DDUGJY. The project has been taken on a mission mode and strategy for electrification consists of squeezing the implementation schedule to 12 months and also dividing village electrification process into 12 Stage milestones with defined timelines for monitoring.

Out of 37,463 census villages, 37,460 villages (99.9%) have been electrified. 3 villages are yet to be electrified. At present, almost 20 engineers are posted in each district to carry out the 100% electrification works in rural areas.

Notably, in the year 2015, 18, 452 villages were un-electrified. After PM Modi-led government came into power, 14882 villages are electrified. Rest 3570 villages are yet to be electrified and other 965 villages are uninhabited.