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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Modi's Saubhagya Yojana: Repackaging an Already-Repackaged Scheme -Ravi Nair

Modi's Saubhagya Yojana: Repackaging an Already-Repackaged Scheme -Ravi Nair

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published Published on Sep 30, 2017   modified Modified on Sep 30, 2017
-TheWire.in

In addition to “launching” a scheme that basically already existed, the prime minister’s claim that his government has a good record on rural electrification contradicts the data.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi this week announced a reportedly brand new scheme to electrify all villages in India and to provide electricity to all by the end of 2018. The scheme was called the Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana or ‘Saubhagya’ intiative. The government press release which came out after the the function says that it will provide power connections to an estimated four crore households which currently do not have a power connection. These connections would be provided free of cost to the poor, the prime minister said.

Though this press release did not give much information on the scheme, the prime minister’s office did tweet some details which were re-tweeted by the prime minister himself.

The aim of the scheme is to connect all the villages in India with electricity and provide free electricity connections to poor families. Quoting different newspapers, this Firstpost article give us a comprehensive view of the different aspects of the scheme: “…(it) is expected to electrify all willing households, as substitution to kerosene while bringing about an improvement in education, health services, communication and public safety. The government claimed it will create more jobs and provide a better quality of life”.

This narrative is exactly the same as the government communication posters above.

Let us look into the scheme in detail and try to find out what is “new”.

At the time of independence, India had around 1,500 villages electrified. By 1991, the number reached 4,81,124. But in the next decade, due to de-electrification, the number came down to 4,74,982 villages. Faulty maintenance by cash-strapped state electricity boards were said to be the main reason for the de-electrification.

In April 2005, the then UPA government led by Manmohan Singh launched a new programme with an objective to “provide access to electricity to all rural households through creation of rural electricity infrastructure comprising of Rural Electricity Distribution Backbone, Village Electricity Infrastructure and Decentralised Distribution Generation & Supply System.” The scheme was named after former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and was formally known as Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY). Under this plan, all the families below poverty line (BPL families) were eligible to get a free electricity connection. There was a capital subsidy involved for the programme and 90% of the subsidy was borne by the central government. From the second half of the tenth five-year plan to the end of the 11th five-year plan, Rs 33,000 crore was allocated. The programme could not cover the entire projected geographical area and hence could not complete the entire spectrum of household electrification. So the government decided to continue the scheme till the end of the 12th five-year plan. The fund allocation was Rs 39,275 crore.

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TheWire.in, 29 September, 2017, https://thewire.in/182446/narendra-modi-saubhagya-scheme-electrification/


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