Progressing J&K: Saubhagya scheme providing electricity to un-electrified households in rural areas

Saubhagya scheme has successfully provided last mile electricity connections to all un-electrified households in rural areas of J&K besides providing Solar Photo Voltaic (SPV) based standalone system for un-electrified households located in remote and inaccessible villages/habitations across Jammu and Kashmir. J&K Power Department Development proactively worked hard in ensuring electrification to every village which is visible from the fact that almost 3,57,405 households have been electrified in whole UT till date.
Despite facing many natural barriers like hilly terrains and difficult topography of the region, J&K government fulfilled the dream of inhabitants living in these places to see the light of bulb. For the first time, after 73 years of independence village Saddal of Udhampur district and Ganouri-Tanta village of Doda district saw the light of an electric bulb ending decades of darkness from the lives of villagers. Similarly, villagers in far flung and hilly border areas of Nowshera sub division in Rajouri are experiencing a big transformation in their lives after receiving electricity under the government’s Saubhagya scheme. This area was deprived of power supply from the last seven decades. “We are grateful to the government for launching ambitious schemes like Saubhgya which has made our lives comfortable and convenient in incredible ways. Earlier, our children could not study due to lack of electricity. We had to go to another village to get our mobile phones charged,” said Abdul Hamid, a resident of the area.
Similarly, residents of Tanchmaidan, Pulwama have all praise for Saubhagya scheme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as it has provided them regular electricity supply. J&K has undertaken a large-scale capacity augmentation programme in the power sector resulting in huge leap in power transmission and distribution capacity. Residents of Jabri village also expressed gratitude to Government for creating electric infrastructure, improving the services in the remotest areas of J&K. Besides, mobile apps like ‘Gram Jyoti Doot’, ‘Urja Vistaar’ have been devised for fast track release of power connections. ‘Saubhagya Rath’ in all districts, is being lauded as an innovative practice by the Power Ministry. Recently, Batdalow area of Khrew village of Pampore Tehsil in South Kashmir’s Pulwama got electricity for the first time. The residents of the area were jubilant after seeing electric lamps of their houses glowing for the first time. A student of the village, Showket Ahmed said that they can now read comfortably without any problem. “Earlier, due to the absence of electricity, we had to study in light of oil-lamps, which used to make the task more tedious,” he said.