Eyeing 2019 elections, BJP on ‘power’ march

Girja Shankar Kaura

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 24

For an Indian in a far-off village in Arunachal Pradesh or Odisha, the flicker of an electric bulb inside his hut brings not only smile on his face but is also a symbol of progress for him as this is first time since Independence that an effort has been made to provide power in his region.

This is no dream, but a reality which is slowly, but surely, coming true for a large number of villagers across the country as the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre is putting in all efforts to provide 24x7 electricity for all in the country by 2019.

This incidentally, is one of key areas where PM Modi has been concentrating and personally monitoring the progress periodically and it is no surprise that he has put in one of his most trusted aides in Piyush Goyal as in charge of the Power Ministry along with the Coal Ministry. And most importantly to maintain a synergy between the two inter-linked ministries.

The other area where the PM is taking personal interest is the infrastructure sector, particularly the construction of roads connecting villages and laying highways. With Nitin Gadkari in charge of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, the focus is strongly on construction of roads at a pace never seen before.

Also this could eventually turn out to be a big vote puller when the next round of general elections line-up in 2019. For the poor and distressed availability of electricity would mean a major change in their lives and probably a game-changer for the Modi government.

Even today the Power Ministry came out with figures of the villages that were electrified last week.

The ministry said 108 villages were electrified across the country in the last week (May 16 to 22) under Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojna (DDUGJY). And it says that its claims can be tracked on http://garv.gov.in/dashboard.

It claimed that till now connections had been provided to 18,452 un-electrified villages and among them were 7,779 remote villages.

While preparing the road map for 24x7 affordable environment friendly “power for all”, Goyal has for the first time also ensured that coal shortage was eliminated with the highest-ever growth in coal production at 7.4 crore tonnes.

At the time when the Modi government came to power two years ago, majority of the coal-based power plants were facing critical shortages with some having stocks for just three days of electricity production. But now, there has been a major turnaround as a result of which India has turned power surplus.

There has been a record capacity addition in conventional and solar power, transmission lines and the energy deficit is at the lowest.

Among the infrastructure projects which are putting the country on a fast track are the use of the new hybrid-annuity model for allocating contracts under the public private partnership (PPP) projects in highways, Namami Gange and railway projects, which will help overcome the challenges faced by private developers in the build-operate-transfer (bot) toll and BOT-annuity models.

Incidentally, budgetary allocation for roads and railways in the Union Budget 2016 has been increased to Rs 2.18 lakh crore with an aim to boost the private investment cycle.