The Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana or Saubhagya

The Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana or Saubhagya

Subject – Government Schemes

Context – Almost 2.82 crore households have been electrified till March 31, 2021

Concept –

• Saubhagya is one of the largest household electrification drives in the world.
• The journey of the scheme started with Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY), which envisaged the creation of basic electricity infrastructure in villages.
  • The focus of the scheme was on strengthening and augmentation the existing infrastructure and metering of existing feeders/distribution transformers to improve the quality and reliability of power supply in rural areas.
• In 2017, Saubhagya was launched, with the objective of achieving Universal Household Electrification in the country through last-mile connectivity and providing access to electricity to all un-electrified households in rural areas and poor households in urban areas.
• While launching the scheme, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had pledged to provide access to electricity and work towards equity, efficiency and sustainability in the New Age India.
• The Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana or Saubhagya is funded by the government’s grant to Discoms/power departments, utility contributions and loans from financial institutions.
• States get 30 per cent of the project cost as loan.
• The electricity connection to households involves drawing a service cable from the nearest pole to the household premise, installation of an energy meter, wiring for a single light point with LED bulb, and a mobile charging point.
• All States have been requested to launch special campaigns to identify un-electrified households and thereafter provide electricity connections to them.
• A dedicated toll-free helpline has also been launched for that purpose.

Limitations –

• Even though audits do happen, they are mostly transactional — about physical presence and assets — which doesn’t indicate the overall socio-economic impact.
• Another issue is ensuring power availability to the last mile. The scheme only targets connecting the last mile with basic electrical networks, but it does not incentivise distribution utilities to provide dependable power across all beneficiaries.
• A major challenge is lack of knowledge dissemination, as the beneficiaries rarely understand the incentives made available to them and electricity providers cannot effectively strategise for efficient supply management owing to lack of field data engagement.