Government launches 16,320 crore Saubhagya scheme
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched a Rs 16,320-crore scheme to supply electricity to all households by December 2018, providing free connections to the poor and at very low cost to others.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the “Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana” or the Saubhagya scheme aims to improve the environment, public health, education and connectivity with the help of last-mile power connections across India. It will help reduce the use of kerosene lamps in non-electrified households.
The government said this scheme will inject more than Rs 16000 crore in the economy to create assets, which in turn will add more investment in the economy and create jobs.
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The total outlay for Saubhagya is Rs 16,320 crore. The outlay for rural households is Rs 14,025 crore, while that for urban households is Rs 2,295 crore. The urban non-poor are excluded from the scheme. Rs 12,320 crore has been earmarked as gross budgetary support for Saubhagya.
The scheme follows the government’s mission to take electricity lines to each and every village in the country, including solar power stations in remote hamlets, which was rigorously implemented by coal and railways minister Piyush Goyal, who was earlier the minister for power, renewable energy, coal and mines.
About 90% of the non-electrified households are in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Jammu & Kashmir and North-Eastern State.
The Union government will provide a 60 per cent grant toward funding the scheme, while the states will provide a 10 percent grant. The remaining amount will be covered by loans. States completing electrification of all households by December 31, 2018, will get an incentive to convert 50 percent of the loan into a grant.