The Orissa government has decided to revise the detailed project report (DPR) prepared for the electrification of the rural areas under the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY).
This is being done as there were some discrepancies in the coverage of villages under the scheme. Some villages were left out while preparing the DPRs. As a result, the central executing agencies were facing problems during the process of electrification. “Wrongly some villages were not included while preparing the DPR for the districts to be covered under the RGGVY. Since the executing agencies are facing some problems in this matter, we have decided to modify the DPRs”, state energy minister, Surya Narayan Patro said.
The revised DPRs will be prepared for all the districts and will be sent to the Union ministry of power (MoP) for approval. However, the rural electrification work in four districts namely, Nayagarh, Angul, Ganjam and Gajapati, will continue while the DPRs are being revised.
Briefing the media after a review meeting, Patro said, all the 30 districts of the state have been included under the RGGVY. The state government has received the first installment from the Centre for 25 districts. Assistance for four more districts namely Bhadrakh, Mayurbhanj, Sundergarh and Nawarangpur is expected this week.
He said, the DPR prepared for Malkangiri district was objected by the Union ministry of power on account of over estimation of costs by about 13 percent. However, he has got the assurance from the chairman of Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) about the approval of the DPR for Malkangiri district. The minister said, the government has decided to simplify the process of paying Rs 60 towards the security fee and Rs 25 towards the processing fee for the BPL families. So they can pay this amount in 6 installments.
Besides, to remove the difficulty of the family members of BPL families to get electricity connection in case of death of the family head, the government has decided to do away with the system of producing affidavit for this purpose. Instead, the family members can now produce any of the documents like the certificate from the local Sarpanch, MLA or the voter identity card.
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Regarding the restoration of electricity in the villages affected by flood, Patro said, about 1698 villages were affected due to the recent flood. It include 435 villages in areas coming under the service area of CESU, 546 villages under WESCO, 648 villages under NESCO and 69 villages under SOUTHCO.
The electricity was restored in all the villages under the NESCO area. However, electricity is yet to be restored in 15 villages in CESU area, 26 villages in WESCO area and 39 villages in SOUTHCO area.
The Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) has assured to provide Rs 20 crore for restoration of electricity in the flood affected villages and the work will be completed within a week, Patro added.