Punjab, Haryana lead in electrification race among states

New Delhi, Nov 1 (UNI) Rural households, especially in Punjab and Haryana, are opting for electricity as a primary source of energy for lighting over kerosene but the pace is uneven in the country, data released here shows.

After the two Northern states, the trend is equally pronounced in the Southern states where households have overwhelmingly shifted to electricity use.

Punjab and Haryana led the way with electricity usage being as high as 95 and 91 per cent respectively with Tamil Nadu placed third at 90 per cent.

The pace of electrification was impressive in the southern states of Tamil Nadu (90 per cent electrification) followed by Karnataka (88 per cent and 12 per cent use of kerosene), Kerala (87 per cent and 13 per cent) and Andhra Pradesh (84 per cent and 13 per cent) respectively.

Among the rest of the states, Uttar Pradesh had 72 per cent kerosene users and 26 per cent opting for electricity while in West Bengal, the number of kerosene users was at 62 per cent, according to a National Sample Survey Organisation study.

In the East, as much as 88 per cent of the population of Bihar was dependent on kerosene, Assam 67 per cent followed by Orissa with 69 per cent. Conversely, Gujarat had 83 per cent electrification, Chhattisgarh 76 per cent, Maharashtra 69 per cent and Madhya Pradesh 66 per cent.

Rajasthan was evenly divided with 45 per cent still using kerosene and 54 per cent going in for electrification.

UNI SD MP RAI1845