INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
by March this year, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said today in his Interim Budget speech that was seen as a populist budget in an election
year."Till the year 2014, about 2.5 crore families were forced to live the life of 18th century without electricity," Mr Goyal said."Under
Saubhagya Yojna, we provided free electricity connection to almost every household
By March 2019, all willing families will get electricity connection
In mission mode, we have provided 143 crore LED bulbs with the participation of the private sector," said the union minister who filled in
for Finance Minister Arun Jaitley as the latter is recuperating in the US."This has resulted into a savings of approximately Rs 50,000 crore
per year in electricity bills of poor and middle class families," he said.In May last year, in a series of tweets, Prime Minister Narendra
Modi announced that a village in Manipur was the last one to receive electricity in the country
More than 80 per cent rural homes in the country - and not the 10 per cent necessary to declare each village electrified - have electricity,
the government later clarified.Electrification has been on government agendas since the country's independence from colonial rule, but it
has run into hurdles, especially because of the huge logistical challenges of bringing electricity to faraway settlements in difficult
terrain.The plan to bring electricity to every village within 1,000 days was announced by PM Modi in 2015.Find LIVE Budget 2019, updates,
latest news, videos, key highlights, reactions, tax and policy changes here
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