(ET)
India’s power-for-all plan is facing an unexpected challenge. Legal electricity connection with bills isn’t attractive for many villagers in several states, because it is a drain on their meagre income.
Surveys in states such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha indicated that many people didn’t want legal electricity connections to avoid rise in expenses, a senior government official said. Having electrified nearly three-fourths of the villages targeted under targeted under the government programme, the union power ministry and state power ministers will now look at ways around this hurdle to meet the 100% goal.
Bihar, Nagaland, Uttar Pradesh, and Jharkhand have at least half the households without electricity access, said the official, adding that access to electricity and infrastructure wasn’t the most important reasons for this. West Bengal and Odisha have grid connectivity, but affordability of electricity is a challenge, he said.
