Solar Aided In Electrification of 4.1 L Households Under ‘Saubhagya’: Govt 

Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy RK Singh, in his recent reply before the Lok Sabha, said that around 1.64 percent (4.1 lakh) of the rural and urban household-level electrification works undertaken under the Saubhagya scheme was done with the help of solar energy. 

“As reported by the States/UTs, a total of 2.86 crore households have been electrified under Saubhagya. Out of this, 1.644% households have been electrified through the installation of Solar energy systems,” the minister said in his written reply before the House. 

As per the reply of the minister, a total of 4,16,469 households were electrified with off-grid renewable solutions, whereas additional 53,946 households were electrified with off-grid solutions under the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Grameen Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY). 

As per the report, the north Indian states have benefited the most from the scheme. For example, the data given suggested that Arunachal Pradesh topped the list of electrified households with 11.46%, followed by Chhattisgarh at 8.25%, Rajasthan at 5.81%, and Mizoram at 5.24% followed by Assam at 4.48% 

The Union government launched Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana – SAUBHAGYA in October 2017 intending to achieve universal household electrification by providing electricity connections to all un-electrified households in rural areas and all poor households in urban areas in the country. Under the aegis of SAUBHAGYA, as of 31.03.2019, all households were reported electrified by the States/UTs, except 18,734 households in Left Wing Extremists (LWE) affected areas of Chhattisgarh. 

“Subsequently, seven States namely Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Manipur, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh reported that around 19.09 lakh un-electrified households, identified before 31.03.2019, which were unwilling earlier but later expressed willingness to get electricity connection. This was also sanctioned. All these seven States had reported 100% household electrification as on 31.03.2021. A total of 2.817 crore households were electrified since the launch of SAUBHAGYA, up to 31.03.2021,” the minister said.