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Modi's dream project of electrifying dark villages set to miss December date

The deadline to achieve 100% rural electrification has been advanced twice. But several states have been severely lagging. West Bengal didn't electrify a single village in six months, Uttarakhand and J&K did only two each.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dream project of electrifying all 18,500 dark villages in the country is likely to miss its "advanced" completion deadline of December 2016 as most states have failed to put up efforts for last-mile connectivity.

Union power ministry's mid-term assessment for 2015-16 (April to August) reveals that most states are going slow on the rural electrification programme.

Out of 18,500 villages identified as un-electrified in April 2015, over 7,500 are still under dark, show power ministry statistics. Work in nearly 6,300 villages is yet to be started. Odisha, Jharkhand and Arunachal Pradesh account for more than half the backlog.

Irked by the poor performance, the ministry has now pulled up the states and written them a strongly worded letter, dated September 27, showing them their report card and pointing out the shortfalls.

Reminding about the "mission mode" of the scheme, the ministry has now issued a monthly target to the states, asking them to make "all concerted efforts" to power all villages by the year-end.

But will the states be able to deliver?

"It took one-and-a-half-years to finish 60% work. Completing rest of the work in three months is impossible," said a highly placed power ministry official in the power ministry.

The initial deadline announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day speech of 2015 was May 2018, which has been revised twice.

Earlier this year, minister of state for power Piyush Goyal advanced the deadline to May 2017. Then in June 2016, Goyal asked the states to complete the task by December-end, setting a tough target for electrifying all villages in the country.

However, on the ground things haven't moved at the same pace.

West Bengal has not been able to electrify a single one of its 14 un-electrified villages in the past six months, shows power ministry data. Uttarakhand and Jammu & Kashmir could do two each in the same period and are now tasked to complete 76 and 107 villages, respectively by the year-end.

Odisha and Arunachal Pradesh have reached only 20% of target. While Jharkhand has speeded up the work and electrified 460 villages in six months, it still has a shortfall of more than 1,200 villages.

Report cards of states like Bihar are still under process. Topping the chart, Uttar Pradesh (UP) is the only state that has crossed two-third of the target. Out of 182 un-electrified villages in the state, over 131 have got electricity by August end, show records.

Dinesh Arora, executive director, Rural Electrification Corporation, Ministry of Power, admits the slow pace of the programme. "Major states which account for 75% of the remaining villages are Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar and Assam. Unprecedented rains and floods led to slow progress," said Arora.

Insisting that there is no shortage of funds for the village electrification programme, Arora said, "Most states are diligently working together in the spirit of Team Power India. In Arunachal there is litigation and Solar Energy Corporation of India has been entrusted to facilitate the work."

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