Only 4000 villages have electricity in Jharkhand
Only about 4,000 out of the 32,615 villages in Jharkhand have electricity while work to supply power to over thousand more villages will be completed by 2011, the state assembly was informed today.
"We have asked the NTPC to complete work within a time-frame (in its area of work). We have also entrusted the State Electricity Board with completing electrification work in 1,244 villages by 2010/11," Deputy Chief Minister, Raghuvar Das, who holds energy portfolio, said.
Replying to a bunch of queries on the issue during question hour, Das said the government was committed to electrify all the villages in the state. "For 50 years there is no electricity in most of the villages. With an aim to provide electricity to all the villages, we have earmarked a new Atal Jyoti Electrification Scheme in the 2010/11 budget," he added.
Taking strong exception to Das's oblique reference that the villages were sans electricity during the Congress' rule for over five decades in undivided Bihar, leader of the opposition, R P Singh (Congress) reminded him how Jharkhand had been benefiting from power plants in Bokaro, Tenughat, Patratu and Maithon set up by previous Congress regimes.
The Deputy Chief Minister said the new budget had the provision for joint ventures to increase power generation and transmission.
Das faced criticism when Jharkhand Janadhikar Manch MLA Bandhu Tirkey informed the House that a blind school in Ranchi city had no power supply for the last sixteen months.
Taking a serious view, Speaker C P Singh directed the government to initiate steps in restoring electricity to the school.
