In April 2016, over 18,450 villages in India did not have electricity. That’s around the time the NDA government put rural electrification on the top of its priority list. Led by Piyush Goyal, the power ministry catalysed the process of electrification of villages, implemented by states and monitored by the central government-owned Rural Electrification Corporation.In March, the Power Ministry claimed that 7108 villages were electrified in Financial Year 2016 (FY16)… more than the villages covered in the last three fiscal years together. 11344 villages are yet to be electrified.
But a Parliamentary Standing Committee says the data is wrong. As reported by PTI on 2 May, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Power observed ‘that the number of villages that are yet to be electrified are much more than the official figure (of 11,344 as on March 31, 2016) and there are cases where electrification of the villages has been done only in records but in reality they are still deprived of the same.’
Minister of State with Independent Charge for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy Piyush Goyal blames the states for wrong data. He says the states have overstated the number of villages electrified inn an exclusive interview with Bloomberg | Quint.
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