Post News Network
New Delhi, May 27: Orissa is behind the national average when it comes to electrification of villages and stands 28th among all states and Union Territories in the country, according to the Progress Report on Village Electrification released in data.go.in.
The report, prepared by the ministry of power, shows that 91.8 per cent villages have been electrified in Orissa by February 2015. The national average of village electrification is 96.7 per cent.
Of the total inhabited 47,677 villages according to the 2011 census, 43,758 villages have been electrified with 3,919 yet to be electrified, according to the data.
The report, which has taken into account all the 5,97,464 villages across 28 states and seven Union Territories into account, shows that 5,77,629 villages have been electrified all over India. The states and Union Territories that have achieved 100 per cent village electrification are Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Chandigarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu, Delhi, Lakshadweep and Pondicherry.
A village has been declared electrified on the basis of basic infrastructure such as distribution transformer and distribution lines in the inhabited locality as well as the dalit basti or hamlet where it exists, electricity provided to public places such as schools, panchayat office, health centres, dispensaries, community centres.
The state government had earlier had launched Biju Gram Jyoti Yojana in 2007 to provide electricity connections to villages that were not covered under the Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Bidyut Yojana.
