The UPA government’s flagship scheme to provide power to rural India has had a short-circuit with only eight of the 27 participating states registering some gains in the rural electrification programme. Barring Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Uttarakhand, the remaining 19 states are yet to connect a single non-electrified village under the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojna (RGGVY) that was launched in April 2005, according to a report by the Central Electricity Authority.Even those states that have made some headway have faltered in achieving the targets set out for the first two years. It was to extend to 67,012 villages with free connectivity to 83 lakh below poverty line (BPL) households but as of August 2007, only 33,281 villages and 13.36 lakh BPL households have got connected. The reason for slow progress, says the Power Ministry, was the inadequate provisioning of funds. While the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had approved Rs 5,000 crore for the first two years, the requirement had jumped to Rs 9,696 crore due to “less liberal norms” adopted in preparing the project report.However, its data shows that 13 of the 19 laggard states had made no progress despite being provided with Rs 744 crore. As for the quality of work, a study by the Planning Commission on RGGVY in Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka says that there were “serious implementation problems” with the projects executed so far. “In 20 per cent of the villages where work was stated to have been completed, it was actually still going on. The quality of infrastructure created under the scheme was not satisfactory in many villages. In 20 per cent of the villages said to be electrified, electricity was actually not available. The franchisee system (for collecting tariff from villagers) is not operating.”The RGGVY was launched in April 2005 at a cost of Rs 16,255 crore, with Centre providing Rs 14,750 crore as grant. Its aim was to electrify 1.25 lakh villages and 7.8 crore households by 2009 with 2.34 crore below poverty line (BPL) households getting free power connection. But two years hence, the Power Ministry has revised the outlay to Rs 51,955 crore with Centre’s grant pegged at Rs 46,812 crore. Since it got Rs 5,000 crore in the Tenth Five Year Plan, the Ministry wants Rs 41,812 crore during the Eleventh Plan.Its reasons for the cost over-run are the “less liberal norms” adopted in the 2005 proposal, villages being larger than anticipated, scattered BPL families in a village, price hike in equipment and metallic wires, and an increase in average cost of a BPL connection from Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,200. However, the Finance Ministry is not convinced with the Power Ministry’s plan. It has reiterated its “inability to support an open ended expenditure programme with unrealistic deliverables and uncertain commitment”. “Cost of the scheme lacks firmness¿if access to electricity is to be provided to 7.8 crore un-electrified rural households, the ultimate cost is likely to touch Rs 78,000 crore,” it said on the proposal which awaits approval of the CCEA. “In the absence of (revenue) sustainability issues being addressed adequately, the scheme is likely to create an unfunded revenue deficit of Rs 10,000 crore, and push the state utilities into further financial distress,” the Finance Ministry has cautioned. It wants a comprehensive review of the progress so far.
