The three-hour long meeting was chaired by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and the cabinet accorded administrative approval for over Rs 333 crore projects of North Bihar Power Distribution Company Limited and South Bihar Power Distribution Company Limited to replace faulty and burnt transformers with high capacity ones in rural areas under Rajiv Gandhi Rural Electrification Scheme.
Advertisement
Former CM of Bihar Jitan Ram Manjhi held a press conference at his residence on Sunday night and accused that CM Nitish Kumar could stoop to any level to stay in power. He said if the power scenario has improved, it is due to “additional power supply” to the state from the central pool.
Indicating that the issue of special status will be an agenda for election campaign he said his team is working towards exposing the details of special package.
Goyal recalled that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had promised not to come seeking votes for the 2015 Assembly polls if he couldn’t ensure round-the-clock power supply.
He also clarified what the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had declared at party’s Parivartan Rally in Saharsha recently that all villages would be electrified within a year, saying “it should not be confused with electrifying every household as the transmission infrastructure comprising 628 power stations and 98 grid power sub-stations was not enough to provide electricity to all villages of Bihar”.
Slamming the chief minister on the issue of electricity in the state the union minister for power Piyush Goyal who was in Patna on Sunday said “Nitish Kumar is saying that his government has done so much to pull Bihar out of backwardness but the fact is not a single Mega Watt of electricity is being generated by the state government, all power generation to the state is being provided by the centre”.
The CM additionally dispatched goal-oriented undertakings worth around Rs 5,000 crore of the state vitality office, for the most part, to enhance transmission and circulation system. “Finally, the Asian Development Bank agreed to offer us a loan of Rs 3,000 crore while the state government decided to invest Rs 2,000 crore from its own resources”. “Out of this, 484 MW is not even from Bihar’s allocated share”, he added.
Advertisement
On the occasion, Mr Goyal also announced electrification of 36 villages located in riverine areas of Patna and Saran districts through installation of two feeders of 11 KV each.
