Bhubaneswar: The Bharatiya Janata Party’s main poll promise of zero electricity bill – the PM Surya Ghar Bijli Yojana – has seemingly turned a mega hit in Odisha.
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Spearheaded by Arvind Kejriwal –led AAP, when the opposition parties, including BJD, have made giving free electricity to households a main poll plank, despite being non-prudent fiscally, the Narendra Modi led NDA govt has proposed the PM-Surya Ghar yojana that promised zero electricity bills for all households, irrespective of consumption units.
As per the scheme guidelines, the Modi govt has formalised the following subsidy terms under the scheme.
A glance at the subsidy announced shows that the scheme covers all households (from BPL to rich).
IS IT AFFORDABLE, ACCESSIBLE TO ALL?
Installing roof top solar panel under the scheme of PM Suryaghar Yojana requires investment from an individual who registers and applies to avail the scheme.
Because the 1kW solar panel in India current costs around Rs 45,000 to Rs 80,000. And the subsidy amount provided under the scheme stood at Rs 30,000 to Rs 60,000.
A poor household (who consumes below 150 units of power) desiring to avail the scheme, has to invest Rs 15,000 as the govt provides subsidy amount of Rs 30K only.
Similarly, a household consuming over 300 units of power need to install a solar panel with a capacity of above 3 kW.
The panel is currently costing Rs 2.45 lakh. And under the scheme, the subsidy amount provided stood at Rs 78,000 only.
As a consequence, the household has to invest nearly Rs 1.7 lakh to avail the benefit of the Modi govt’s muft bijli yojana.
The above discussion shows the PM Surya Ghar Yojana offers higher subsidy amount to poorer households who cannot offer to invest under the scheme.
This also underlines PM Surya Ghar Yojana is not a zero cost, 100% benefit scheme.
Despite the cost factor, the application count for the scheme shows citizens across the country are lapping up the scheme in a big way.
Against the target of bringing 1 cr households under the scheme, the registrations have surpassed the target to reach 1.71cr as on Feb 1.
SCHEME HIT IN ODISHA, STATE IN TOP 5
Despite being a cost sharing scheme, the PM Surya Ghar Yojana registrations in Odisha looks encouraging, as the State figured among the top-6 states in implementing the scheme.
As per the data available, the State has recorded a massive 12.80205 lakh registrations under the scheme.
The households who have applied for availing the benefit the scheme stood at 88,514.
The number of households in the State who have started availing benefit of the scheme stood at 2,199.
Here are the details of top 5 states.
STATES | REGISTARTIONS | APPLICATIONS | BENEFITTED |
UTTAR PRADESH | 28.22194 lakh | 10.04105 lakh | 77,937 |
ANDHRA PRADEESH | 17.70413 lakh | 11.07234 lakh | 12,036 |
ASSAM | 17.49651 lakh | 2.89307 lakh | 6,485 |
GUJARAT | 17.40135 lakh | 3.66097 lakh | 3.62907 lakh |
MAHARASHTRA | 16.61676 lakh | 5.46307 lakh | 2.03742 lakh |
ODISHA | 12.80205 lakh | 88,514 | 2,199 |
REALITY CHECK: ODISHA BENEFICIARY COUNT POOR
A reality check of the PM Surya Ghar Yojana shows, though, Odisha leads in registration in the country by figuring 6th nationally, the State is limping slow when it comes to applications and actual beneficiaries.
The State lags behind poorly in the actual beneficiary indeed, as it is nowhere in the top-10.
As per the actual implementation nationally, Gujarat stands Number 1 in India. The top-10 states are given below.
- GUJARAT
- MAHARASHTRA
- UTTAR PRADESH
- KERALA
- RAJASTHAN
- MADHYA PRADESH
- TAMIL NADU
- HIMACHAL PRADESH
- TELANGANA
- ANDHRA PRADESH
WHY SLOW IN ODISHA?
As illustrated above, since it is a cost sharing scheme, though the registration has been high, the application count and actual beneficiaries in the State has been on the lower side.
The State can see a boost to this programme, if Odisha government chips in with further subsidising the scheme from State budget to the individual households.
