Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday launched a Rs 16,320-crore scheme – Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana or 'Saubhagya' – to provide electricity connections to over 4 crore families in rural and urban areas by December 2018.
Under the scheme, the government proposes to provide electricity to all households by December 2018, ahead of the earlier target of March 2019.
Rs 16,000 crore will be spent to bring a monumental change in the lives of the poor...We are slowly moving towards one nation-one grid-one price policyNarendra Modi, Prime Minister
The Prime Minister also called upon ONGC to use its Rs 100 crore start up funds to develop user friendly electric cooking appliances saying it would help in reducing the fuel consumption.
The Centre will provide largely funds for the scheme to all States/UTs.
The beneficiaries for free electricity connections would be identified using Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 data.
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