Saubhagya Scheme : Notifications To The Former Chief Secretary
The Meghalaya Lokayukta recently issued notifications to the former chief secretary and other former officials of the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) for their alleged irregularities in the implementation of the Saubhagya scheme in the state.
- The Government of India launched Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (SAUBHAGYA) in October, 2017
- Objective is achieving universal household electrification, by providing electricity connections to all un-electrified households in rural areas and all poor households in urban areas in the country.
- Under the Saubhagaya scheme, LED bulbs, wire, holders, switches, etc are to be provided to BPL families free of cost.
- Salient features of the scheme were:
- Providing last-mile connectivity and electricity connections to all un-electrified households in rural areas.
- Providing Solar Photo Voltaic (SPV)-based standalone systems for un-electrified households located in remote and inaccessible villages / habitations where grid extension is not feasible or cost effective.
- Providing last mile connectivity and electricity connections to all remaining economically poor un-electrified households in urban areas. Non-poor urban households are excluded from this scheme.
- In the rural areas, families other than BPL family’s electricity connection has to be provided for Rs. 500. The consumer has to pay the amount in 10 equal installments of Rs. 50 in each bill, in the urban areas, the BPL families will be provided free power connection.
- It is a provision that families of rural areas, which are not possible to issue electrical assemblies through grid supply, have to be published through solar energy.
- Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) has been designated as its nodal agency for the Saubhagya scheme.
- The beneficiaries for free electricity connections will be identified using Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 data.
