Chief minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday asked electricity distribution companies to pull up their socks and complete rural electrification work within the stipulated period of time in phases.

"North Bihar Power Distribution Company Limited (NBPDCL) and South Bihar Power Distribution Company Limited (SBPDCL) should increase their work efficiency further. They should ensure good quality work in the ongoing rural electrification programme and complete them in phases manner within the stipulated time," Nitish said.

The chief minister was speaking at a review meeting of the energy department at his secretariat in the presence of energy minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav, energy adviser P.K. Rai, principal secretary Pratyaya Amrit and other officials.

Electricity to all is one of the seven resolves of the chief minister and November 2017 has been fixed as the deadline to realise it.

Under this all rural households would be provided metered connections free of cost, and continuous power supply will be ensured.

Reviewing the progress made by the energy department in fulfilling the resolve, Nitish asked the officials to ensure a faultless survey to select beneficiaries and completion of works.

Recently, Bihar Electricity Regulatory Commission, while declaring tariff for various types of power consumers for 2016-17, had asked the power distribution companies to make efforts to cut down their revenue gap by increasing operational efficiency, cutting down on distribution losses, improvement in billing and better financial discipline.