Shillong: Setting specific targets in providing electricity to villages, Union power minister, R.K. Singh launched the Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (Saubhagya) scheme for Meghalaya here on Friday.

Chief minister Conrad K. Sangma, power minister James K. Sangma and other officials were present.

Saubhagya is a scheme for providing electricity to all households in the country. The objective of the scheme is to achieve universal household electrification and create last mile connectivity to all households.

Singh termed Saubhagya a revolutionary scheme and assured that the Centre was committed towards ensuring power connectivity to all unelectrified villages.

The minister also said the key to all-round development lies in focus targets for the poor, needy and deprived sections of society.

"Our final target is to see that by December 31 this year, every household in the country is electrified. But apart from this target, we also have sub-targets," Singh said. In Meghalaya, 14 villages have been targeted to be electrified before April 30 though an actual target is May 11, 2018.

Singh said that another target was to provide electricity to people from backward sections by May 5 this year. Nearly 56,000 beneficiaries in Meghalaya will get electricity under the Saubhagya scheme.

The Union minister, along with the chief minister Conrad K. Sangma, distributed sanction orders for free household electricity connections to 30 selected beneficiaries.

Conrad, describing Saubhagya as a wonderful scheme, assured that the state would try to fulfil the electricity deadline.