PM Modi claims all villages in India electrified, Congress slams NDA govt

In 2015, World Bank in a report mentioned India and Nigeria to be the joint toppers of most power deficient countries. According to the 2011 census, Leisang has 19 families with 65 people. He included photographs of men hauling solar panels and electrical equipment through scrubland and across streams. Yesterday, we fulfilled a commitment due to which the lives of Indians will be transformed forever! That deadline would have elapsed on May 10.

One of the key objectives of the DDUGJY was to achieve 100 per cent village electrification. It essentially does not mean that all its habitats have access to electricity. “This news will make every Indian proud and delighted”, Modi tweeted.

But the numbers behind Mr Modi’s electrification thrust tell a different story. The Uddhav Thackeray-led party claimed that Modi was trying to resolve pending issues with Beijing through “Panchsheel”, five principles of peaceful coexistence propounded by former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru of whom he had been critical.

In 1947, during the time of Independence, only 1,500 of India’s villages were electrified. As of Thursday, less than 8 percent of the newly electrified villages had all homes electrified, the data showed, leaving swaths of rural India without power, which can hinder economic growth, basic health care and education.

The Congress claimed that the Government was taking “fake credit” for the feat. Modi wrote on Twitter, as various ministers in his government took to social media to congratulate him. Let’s assume they have electrified 18,000 villages.

“As for whether India accepts the expression Belt and Road, I think it is not important and China will not be too hard on it”, he said.

“No. Not every village yet”, said Twitter user Dilip Gupta, identifying his village in a district of Uttar Pradesh in the north.

According to Mr. Verma, 15% of the villages so far electrified have been done so using off-grid solutions such as solar, while the remaining 85% are connected to the grid.

During the project, 5 million homes and 597,464 villages were connected to either the national grid or to independent systems created to reduce the number of petrol generators. This definition precedes Mr Modi’s accession to power.

Some states are still not able to meet demand. The next step is providing connection to all households and ensuring adequate power supply to them. But the challenge will be steep. “He electrified the last 18,000 villages and calls it a big achievement of his government”, he added.

The Communist giant was also trying to spread its influence ” in India’s neighbouring countries such as the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Myanmar, it said.

The defence minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, on Monday said that the Doklam issue was handled by India with “complete maturity without bloodshed” while the government will continue to oppose the “China-Pakistan Economic Corridor” (CPEC) without severing diplomatic ties with China.