Shillong, May 30: As many as 22 villages in Meghalaya were electrified during the past week along with 95 others across the country.
Around 117 villages were electrified between May 23 and May 29 under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojna, a flagship programme of the Union ministry of power.
Apart from the 22 villages in Meghalaya, the other villages include 18 in Arunachal Pradesh, 26 in Assam, 23 in Jharkhand, one in Rajasthan, six in Madhya Pradesh, three in Uttar Pradesh, five in Bihar, two in Chhattisgarh, and 11 in Odisha, an official communiqué stated.
The 22 villages that were electrified include eight in East Garo Hills, four in East Khasi Hills, six in Jaintia Hills, and four in Ri Bhoi district. However, according to the information provided in www.garv.gov.in, another 889 villages are yet to be electrified in the state. These include 249 in East Garo Hills, 114 in East Khasi Hills, 62 in Jaintia Hills, 92 in Ri Bhoi, 71 in South Garo Hills, 80 in West Garo Hills and 221 in West Khasi Hills.
It may be mentioned that the Centre had decided to electrify 18,452 villages within 1,000 days, that is by May 1, 2018.
The strategy for electrification comprises squeezing the implementation schedule to 12 months and dividing village electrification process in 12-stage milestones with defined timelines for monitoring. So far, 7,991 villages have been electrified, and out of the remaining 10,461 villages, 455 villages are uninhabited.
From April 2015 to August 14, 2015, 1,654 villages were electrified, but 6,337 additional villages have been electrified from August 15, 2015 to May 29, 2016.
Moreover, 6,739 villages are to be electrified through grid while 2,911 villages through off-grid where grid solutions are out of reach owing to geographical barriers.
The communiqué said #close monitoring is being done through Gram Vidyut Abhiyanta and various actions are being taken on a regular basis like monthly review of the progress made, sharing of list of villages that are at the stage of under-energisation with the respective distribution company in the states and others.
