New Delhi, June 20 (IANS) A total of 142 villages in 11 states were electrified during the week ending June 19 under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojna, a statement said on Monday.
"Of the electrified villages, 80 are in Assam, 16 in Jharkhand, 15 in Meghalaya, three in Uttar Pradesh, one in Chhattisgarh, six in Arunachal Pradesh, eight in Odisha, two in Karnataka, one in Himachal Pradesh, and five each in Bihar and Rajasthan," said the statement from the power ministry.
A total of 8,384 villages have been electrified till date, it added.
"Of the remaining 10,068 villages, 6,481 are to be electrified through grid, 2,787 villages are to be electrified through off-grid, where grid solutions are out of reach due to geographical barriers, and 341 villages are to be electrified by the state governments; 459 villages are uninhabited," it added.
At the state power ministers meeting held in Goa last week, the central government and states resolved to meet the target of taking electricity to all villages by the end of this year, ahead of the original 1 May, 2018 deadline, Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal had said.
Addressing reporters at end of the two-day meeting, Goyal said all states, except those affected by left wing extremism, have resolved to electrify all the remaining unelectrified villages by December, 2016 and they would award contracts within the next month for this work.
He said the states were determined to provide power to 18,452 villages in the country in a mission mode by May 1, 2017.
