Reiterating his commitment to renewable energy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has directed speeding up of the process of rural electrification and called for stern action against power theft, as he reviewed the progress in projects in energy sector. He also called for accelerating the implementation of renewable energy projects.
Prime Minister in a high-level meeting on various energy sectors, which was attended by senior officials from the concerned Ministries, NITI Aayog and PMO, called for speeding up the process, so as to achieve 100 percent electrification, state-wise, progressively, in a well-defined time frame. He reviewed the progress towards targets in power and coal sectors.
Recently, a report published by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), revealed a sharp 24 percentage points drop in the number of rural households using kerosene for lighting, and an equal increase in electrified households since 1999-2000, the date of the last such relevant survey. Presently, 921 projects to electrify 1,20,804 un-electrified villages, intensive electrification of 5,95,883 partially electrified villages had been sanctioned under the flagship Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana.