With a view to provide access to electricity to all rural households in the country by 2009, Government of India has introduced “Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana” (RGGVY) in April, 2005.  The scheme covers electrification of all the villages in the country except the villages under the programme of Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources (MNES) for providing electricity from non-conventional energy sources under their remote village electrification programme of 25,000 villages. The salient features of the scheme are :-

·                     Scheme is for the attainment of the goal set for providing access to electricity to all households in four years.

·         Ninety per cent capital subsidy would be provided for overall cost of the projects under the scheme.

·                     States must make adequate arrangements for supply of electricity and there should be no discrimination in the hours of supply between rural and urban households.

·                     For projects to be eligible for capital subsidy under the scheme, prior commitment of the States would also be obtained before sanction of projects under the scheme for: -

ü       deployment of franchisees for the management of rural distribution in projects financed under the scheme, and

ü       the provision of requisite revenue subsidies to the State Utilities as required under the Electricity Act, 2003.

*           REC is the nodal agency for the scheme.

178 projects have been approved till November, 2005 covering 182 districts of 20 states. These (178) projects cover 51037 unelectrified villages and 6427998 unelectrified rural households.  Inviting tenders, awarding contracts, franchisee deployment are already in progress in a number of states like West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Uttaranchal, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Haryana. 

            Giving this statement in a written in the Rajya Sabha today the Minister of Information and Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs, Shri Priya Ranjan  Dasmunsi informed the House that Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) as a financial institution provides financial assistance to State Power Utilities for implementation of rural electrification programme against the eligible projects received from them. Under REC financed projects, 307325 villages (including 1419 villages under Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) have been reported electrified in various States up to November 2005, as per the details given below:-

Villages electrified under the projects financed by REC during 2005-06 and cumulative position upto 31-10-2005

BKS/MK.