Patna: The Centre has come up with a scheme for distribution of 27.5 lakh solar pumps among farmers across the country for irrigation purposes.
Union minister of state (independent charge) for power and new & renewable energy, Raj Kumar Singh shared information on the scheme named Kusum at a media interaction through videoconference on Tuesday.
"Issues concerning farmers are very close to the Prime Minister's heart and as part of delivering benefits to farmers we have launched the Kusum scheme," Singh said at the interaction.
The programme was organised to showcase achievements of the Narendra Modi government in the power sector in its first four years of rule.
While 17.5 lakh of the solar pumps would be distributed in areas not covered by grids, the rest will be distributed in rest of the country.
Bihar, the minister said in replying to a query, "would get these pumps as per requirement".
He said in the initial phase the states would be asked to provide details of their requirement and after that preliminary allocation would be made.
Bihar has already launched a scheme to promote use of solar pumps and is aiming to distribute 3,300 solar pumps of its own in the current fiscal. Farmers are given these pumps at just one-fourth of the actual price.
Asked what was Bihar likely to demand from the Kusum scheme, a senior official in the energy department said any such demand would be made after going through the details of the scheme.
A scheme to set up dedicated agricultural feeders too is being implemented across the country for reducing farmers' dependence of diesel-run pump sets. A total of 1,312 such feeders are being set up in Bihar.
Union minister Singh expressed satisfaction at the progress made in setting up these feeders in Bihar.
He said that another scheme was being introduced to set up mini solar grids for farmers, which can be installed on barren land, for producing 2MW of electricity.
"Farmers would get rent for the land and power would be supplied in the area, ensuring better availability," Union minister Singh said at the programme.
Charting out achievements of the Modi government, Singh said while average capacity addition in power generation used to be 4,800MW per year earlier, it has jumped to 24,000MW a year in the past four years.
He also pointed out that against 4,300km of inter-state transmission lines added per year, in the past four years it has gone to 25,000km per year.
Singh also spoke on the Saubhagya scheme that entails electrification of all households in the country by March 2019. He said efforts were being made to reach the goal by December 2018.