Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal today claimed credit for the pace of rural electrification in Uttar Pradesh over the past two years and said efforts of his ministry had helped bring honesty in electrification work.
"When I took over as the power minister, Uttar Pradesh lagged behind in the field of rural electrification...It was found that in 2012-13, only three new villages got electrified while in the next financial year not a single village got power and this was a matter of grave concern," he said.
Goyal was talking to newspersons here after launching the pilot project of District Vidyut Abhiyantas (DVAs) for Uttar Pradesh.
"The central government, especially the Rural Electrification Corporation Limited (REC) worked in this direction by putting pressure on the state government for taking up works.
"...You will be happy to note that while only three new villages were electrifired in 2012-13 and 2013-14, electrification reached 1,364 villages during 2014-15 and 2015-16," he said.
The union minister said it was also "because of the efforts made by us that there is more honesty in the work related to electrification."
This is because the Centre made all out efforts for success of this task, he said, adding "Now a detailed review is done at my level every month with power secretaries and officials."
To a question on Akhilesh Yadav government accusing the Centre of non-cooperation in power sector, Goyal said, "They should tell what more cooperation it required from the Centre.
During the conference, the states were given several
suggestions and direction from the ministry, Goyal said.
"States were asked to finalise the Power Purchase Agreements with renewable energy generators before March 2017. States have also been asked to identify thermal power plants, which can be phased out. States are also asked to expedite the process of giving mining leases through auction" he added.
Another issue discussed at length was non-requisition of power by states from thermal power plants.
"In some cases, States are not able to buy power from thermal power plants. In such scenario, such extra power can be sold to other states. This is the best way to provide affordable electricity to the poor citizens and farmers of the nation," said Goyal.
Talking to reporters, Pujari said India is all set to supply power to Sri Lanka through sub-sea cables.
On a question of any possibility of supplying power to Pakistan, he replied in the negative.
"I can only say that it is technically possible to supply power to Pakistan. However, it will be only done when a decision is taken about it. As of now, we are thinking to supply power to Sri Lanka through sub-sea cables, which is possible with the latest technology. The project is in its initial phase. Sri Lanka's demand is 500 MW," he said.
