India electricity crunch worst in March since October 2021 coal crisis: Report
PremiumThe current shortage is being attributed to a surge in power demand recently. It has forced the government to cut coal supplies to the non-power sector
India's monthly power shortage for the current month till March 30 stands at 574 million units, which is the worse since October 2021, a Reuters analysis showed. The current shortage is being attributed to a surge in power demand recently. It has forced the government to cut coal supplies to the non-power sector. Before this, October 2021 had seen a major coal crunch, which had caused power shortage and subsequent cuts in many north Indian states.
India runs the SAUBHAGYA scheme, which is one of the world‟s biggest universal electrification initiatives, with collaborative and concerted efforts of the Centre and the states. It is a concurrent program to Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana‟ (DDUGJY).
Under the SAUBHAGYA scheme, DISCOMs organise camps in villages/clusters of villages to facilitate on-the-spot filling up of application forms including the release of electricity connections to households.
Around 2.82 crore households have been electrified since the launch of the scheme as of March 31, 2021. As of March 2019, 2.63 crore willing unelectrified households in rural and urban areas of the country were provided electricity connections in a record time of 18 months. Subsequently, seven states - Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Manipur, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh reported that around 18.85 lakh un-electrified households, identified before March 31, 2019, which were unwilling earlier, but later expressed their willingness to get electricity connections, were also covered under the scheme.
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