ELECTRIFICATION OF VILLAGES IN
TENTH FIVE YEAR PLAN
Cabinet Committee
on Economic Affairs has approved a total grant of 563.87 crore
for the Tenth Plan as interest subsidy on loans for rural electrification
of unelectrified villages under Accelerated Rural Electrification
Programme. An amount of Rs.100 crore has been provided in the
budget of 2003-04 as interest subsidy under Accelerated Rural
Electrification Programme. The salient features of this programme
are :
- The interest subsidy will be
at the rate of 4 per cent.
- The interest subsidy would be
provided as grant for the loans to be taken for rural electrification
of un-electrified villages including dalit bastis, hamlets
and household. Rural Electrification would be through Conventional
as well as Non-Conventional sources of energy.
The targets and size
of implementation of village electrification are decided by the
State Governments/State Power utilities in accordance with their
priorities, policies and availability of financial resources.
However, during the year 2002-03, 5655 villages have been reported
to be electrified.
This information
was given by Smt. Jayawanti Mehta, Minister of State for Power
in a written reply to a question by Shri Rama Murni Reddy Sirigireddy
and Shri K. Rama Mohana Rao in Rajya Sabha today.
