Patna, Jan. 26: Governor Ram Nath Kovind in his Republic Day speech at Gandhi Maidan today said Bihar could be very near to Kerala in electrifying all its villages.

He said that of the 39,073 villages in the state, 38,056 have already been electrified. "The rest of the villages will be electrified by December 2017," Kovind said, pointing out that the villages electrified include 211 remote and inaccessible ones where power had been provided through renewable energy modes.

The governor said the drive was set into motion on November 15 when chief minister Nitish Kumar launched his "electricity in all households" scheme - one of his seven resolves. Incidentally, the consumption of power in Bihar during peak hours has already reached 3,769MW.

The governor's major portion of the speech was focused on the seven resolves of the Grand Alliance government and the total liquor ban. He reasserted the state government's vow to establish rule of law - a subject for which the opposition has criticised Nitish.

"The rules of law are imposed on everyone without discrimination," Kovind said stressing that the law and order is under control and steps have been taken to strengthen policing.

He also touched on the "zero tolerance against corruption" policy and that under the Right to Service Act, over 14 crore applications had been disposed of and services had been provided to the people within the stipulated period.

The governor declared that new primary and middle schools have registered an increase in number of classes and teachers have been recruited.

On the health front, the governor claimed substantial improvement in basic infrastructure in primary and district health centres. Kovind said Bihar was now in the second phase of reforms in providing modern health care to its citizens so that residents would not have to go outside the state for treatment.

The governor talked about the government claim regarding improvement in the farming sector after it implemented the agriculture road map and pointed towards increased food grain procurement by the state. He also highlighted welfare schemes for deprived sections of the society and spoke about the 15-year road map the state had made for disaster management. Special emphasis was given on steps taken by the government for women's empowerment.

Issues related to seven resolves of the government like tap water accessibility for all, toilets in all households and skill development were mentioned.

The speech had a long reference to the "social revolution" taking place due to the total liquor ban in Bihar. Kovind claimed that prohibition had the support of all sections of the society and it that it had resulted in economic boost, a dip in crime and domestic violence.