Union power minister RK Singh on Sunday said that the Centre was working on a plan of 24x7 power supply to every household and provision of compensation to consumers in case of load shedding, which would come into effect very soon.

“Very soon, people of the country will have 24x7 power supply guarantee. If there is load shedding, consumers will get adequate compensation,” said the Union minister and added that use of diesel generator sets would come to an end in few months.

“We have done three to four times higher works in five years against the works done in past 65 years in power sector. The current power production in the country is 3.5 lakh mega watt. We have added 1.20 lakh production in it in past five years,” Singh said.

The minister was speaking at the foundation laying function of 245-bed Powergrid Vishram Sadan (rest room for patients’ attendants) at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences auditorium in Ranchi on Sunday.

“Poor people in remote villages had never thought that electricity would reach to their homes, but the Modi government made it possible. Now, barring some localities in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, power has reached to every household in the country,” Singh said. “Now we are strengthening power distribution system,” he added.

Speaking at the event Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das said 80% districts of the state would get 24x7 power supply by December this year. “Jharkhand has done tremendous works in power sector,” the CM said.

Out of 68 lakh households, merely 38 lakh had the access to electricity till 2014.

“The remaining 30 lakh households had been living without electricity for past seven decades. We decided to bring them out of darkness. After four and half years, power has reached to every household

in Jharkhand even to the families living in hilly areas,” Das said.

He said there are merely 38 grid substations against the requirement of 138 sub-stations in the state. “Now, works on 60 grid sub-stations have completed and rest of them would be completed soon,” Das said.

In a bid to make access of power to agriculture section, the government was setting up 300 agriculture feeders in the state.

“Farmers in the state would be provided power supply for six hours every day through these feeders to boost agriculture sector,” Das said.

There were 245 remote and hill villages in the state where taking the transmission line was a difficult job. These villages were provided electricity connections through solar grid.

First Published: Jul 15, 2019 14:02 IST