NIDHI TAPARIA
In his second Independence Day speech from the the Red Fort in New Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had conveyed to the masses, his Government’s resolve to connect to electricity all the 18,500 un-electrified villages within the next 1,000 days. Now that might seem to be an over-ambitious resolve but with an efficient Union Power Ministry and a powerful Power Minister in the form of Piyush Goyal, the objective seems soon to be accomplished. The Ministry of Power has taken up the task of village electrification on mission mode.
Connecting rural India to power has always been a mammoth challenge for all Governments. The task of providing power has been evolved to suit the Indian federal structure well. While the Central Government takes care of the policy and financial aspect, the States are entrusted to ensure last mile connectivity by providing access to and distributing electricity and maintaining the required infrastructure.
Fresh updates from the GARV app show that 58 per cent of the 18452 un-electrified villages have been electrified now, with 149 days still remaining. Out of those still un-electrified, in more than 50 per cent the work is under progress. 94 per cent of the villages have been visited by the GVAs which reflects their massive outreach.
Even after systematic distribution of work, the electrification process has remained retarded with majority of Indian masses having no access. The National Democratic Alliance Government has taken big steps to fasten its pace and bring about transparency in the due process. The Power Ministry is working towards rural electrification under the scheme name – Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) – that was launched in 2015. Apart from that, policies like the UDAY (Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana) and UJALA (Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All) are great strides in the said direction.
The Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) works as a nodal agency for the implementation of DDUGJY. It has set up a new mechanism for ensuring greater transparency, micromanagement and fastening electrification process in these 18500 (18452 precisely) villages. The new mechanism has been devised in such a way that the process takes place through various levels and each level is held accountable for its part of the process. Like previously, the main implementation work lies with the State Governments or DISCOMs. But to capture the progress of works in a village, the entire process has been divided into 12 milestones. Further, “Gram Vidyut Abhiyanta” (GVAs) or electrical engineers have been deployed to help in the monitoring. Entire monitoring work takes place through the GARV (Grameen Vidyutikaran) Application (www.garv.gov.in) made by the Power Ministry.
The GVAs have to visit the un-electrified villages to check milestone wise progress and click photographs to be uploaded on the GARV app. This way the app ensures absolute transparency; reports are made available not only with the Ministry officials but also with the general public. “I am going to turn everything into an app and I am going to allow people to monitor daily what work we are doing, what work States are doing” said Piyush Goyal at the Power Focus Summit in the month of March in 2016. Apart from the obvious transparency advantage, the app provides a real-time dashboard reflecting progress as and when it is made. The mechanism is wholly paper-less and highlights implementation and infrastructural hurdles timely so that the remedy can be applied at the earliest. Prior to this, reports were made available by the state governments themselves and until recently media surveys suggested the reports by states did not reflect the ground reality. The mechanism involving GVAs shows the true picture and hence the Centre can act at its own behest.
Fresh updates from the GARV app show that 58 per cent of the 18452 un-electrified villages have been electrified now, with 149 days still remaining. Out of those still un-electrified, in more than 50 per cent the work is under progress. 94 per cent of the villages have been visited by the GVAs which reflects their massive outreach. Earlier this month, ministry officials also announced a second version of the app – GARV II – that will soon be launched, with upgradations and better fast-checking. The version 2.0 is likely to provide details of state government expenditure on electrifying villages also giving details of metering, supply and outages of for all households.
(The writer is associated with St Xavier’s College, Jaipur)