Electricity in 3000 villages under BGJY in Orissa

Bhubaneswar, May 12 (UNI) Over 3,000 villages in Orissa will be electrified under the Biju Grameen Jyoti Yojana(BGJY) scheme by June-end, Energy Minister S N Patro said here today.

Mr Patro said out of the 4,195 villages targetted to be electrified in 2007-08, 640 villages had already been electrified under the scheme.

The electrification of rest 3,036 villages would be completed by end of June this year.

The Minister said a sum of Rs 50 lakh would be allotted to each block to undertake electrification of villages and work order for the purpose had already been issued. The government, he said, had already identified 4,000 villages to be electrified during 2008-09.

The progress of Rural Electrification programmes under various schemes was being discussed at a review meeting held under the Chairmanship of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

The meeting was told that four out of the 30 districts were taken up for electrification under the Rajiv Gandhi Bidyut Karan Yojana.

While NTPC was entrusted with the implementation of scheme in Nayagarh and Angul districts, NHPC was implementing the scheme in Ganjam and Gajapati districts.

The Minister said work under the scheme could not make desired progress in the absence of electricial contractors and electric poles.

In a bid to overcome the electric pole problem, the companies were asked to make electrical poles in Angul and Nayagarha.

Mr Patro said PGCIL was asked to implement the RGBKY in Jajpur, Balasore and Puri.

He said tender had been invited for the implementation of the scheme in rest 23 districts, adding that contractors for implementing the scheme would be finalised by the end of this month.

In a bid to speed up the work, the government today empowered the Electrical Inspectors of the distribution companies to inspect the electric line and issue certificates, Mr Patro said UNI BD DP LL GL HT1817