1200 un-electrified villages in Aruchal: Minister

From our correspondent

Itagar, March 13: Aruchal Pradesh has 1200 un-electrified villages out of 18000 in India, State Power Minister Tamiyo Taga informed the Assembly on Tuesday.

Responding to apprehensions raised by opposition PPA members during the motion on Governor’s address, Taga said that the process of cent per cent electrification of all villages across the State were going on smoothly to meet the April end target of this year as desired by Prime Minister rendra Modi.

“We have classified all the un-electrified villages in the State in two categories— off-grid and on-grid keeping in view its geographical locations,” the minister said adding, 903 villages located at interior areas in the State have been classified as off grid villages which would be electrified by solar energy.

“The Solar Energy Corporation of India has taken up the project,” he said. Taga further said that electrification of 301 on-grid villages was going on in the fast track, which would be completed by April this year.

The minister further said the house that the Aalo-Pasighat 132 KV transmission line which was commissioned last year, has reduced electricity problem to East and West Siang districts significantly.

Responding to the charges of the opposition members, the minister said that the previous government had wrongly entered many un-electrified villages in the State as electrified villages under the Rajiv Gandhi Gram Jyoti Yoja (RGGJY), which contributed to the delay in electrification.

“We have overcome the issue and efforts to electrify these villages are going on smoothly,” he said and added that Aruchal being a disaster-prone State, power supply got disrupted frequently due to landslide and flood.

The minister added that the state government had already accorded administrative approval for implementing the Central scheme – Sovagya Yoja as announced by the Prime Minister and assured of completing the scheme by December this year.