Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY)

Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) is one of the flagship programmes of the Ministry of Power to facilitate 24×7 supply of power. The scheme has been launched with a clear cut objectives to enable to initiate reforms in the rural areas. The twin targeted goals of the scheme focuses on feeder separation (rural households & agricultural) and strengthening of sub-transmission & distribution infrastructure including metering at all levels in rural areas to supply  round the clock power to rural households and facilitate the availability of adequate power to agricultural consumers. Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) for rural electrification which was the predecessor of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) has been subsumed in the new scheme and made its rural electrification component.

With the DDUGJY in place the benefits expected to accrue through the successful implementation of the scheme include the dream of total electrification of all villages coming true  which will ,in turn, result  in the growth of small and household enterprise, increase in agriculture yield, better and efficient and unhindered supply of  electricity to schools, panchayats and hospitals. The scheme will augment Health, Education, Banking (ATM) and other communication services network in villages. The success of rural electrification drive will also help the government provide better social security to the residents and identify the targeted beneficiaries of various social welfare projects.

Traditionally as we know the rural agricultural and non-Agriculture consumers (domestic and non-domestic load) in the country are provisioned the power supply through the local distribution network. The need for augmenting the rural infrastructure is being felt over decades but the task of putting in place the sustainable and sound infrastructure in terms of communication, service delivery system and agriculture yield is not easy until the investment in the distribution network is increased and the financial health of the distribution companies is improved. The scheme DDUGJY has been launched keeping in view all problems being faced by the rural areas on the front of generation, supply and distribution. The mission has started yielding highly encouraging results .It may be recalled here Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his independence day speech last year announced that “the government had decided to electrify 18,452 unelectrified villages within 1000 days, i.e. by May 1, 2018.” In the Union Budget 2016-17, allocation amounting to Rs. 8500 crore was dedicated to DDUGJY and Integrated Power Development Schemes, with a missionary zeal to electrify about 12,597 villages in country by May, 2018. It is heartening to note that till February 2016, 5855 villages in India have been electrified in 11 months. As many as “253 villages were electrified across the country during February 8-14, 2016 under DDUGJY,” the power ministry announced in a statement. Out of the 253 electrified villages, 111 are in Odisha, 81 in Assam, 40 in Jharkhand, 13 in Rajasthan, 4 in Bihar, 3 in Madhya Pradesh and 1 in Uttar Pradesh.

It may be pointed out in the end that state like Bihar – an agriculture intensive state is going to enormously benefit from works of feeder separation. Under the scheme new lines covering thousands of kilometers shall be laid and hundreds of new substations will be built thereby ensuring the improved agricultural productivity and wider electrification of all the rural households in the state.