PM Narendra Modi's claim on Hathras electrification based on UP Govt's information: Piyush Goyal

Jaipur: Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy and Mines Piyush Goyal on Tuesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi`s claim on electrification of Hathras was based on information given by the Uttar Pradesh government.

"We got such a report, based on which this village is considered as electrified. The Central Government does the work of electrification with the help of the state governments. We tried to do the electrification fast. When the state government gave us in writing that electrification has been done, this village was considered as electrified," Goyal told the media here.

Goyal said the Steering Committee of Uttar Pradesh on November 13, 2013, had written to the Centre about the electrification and asked for approval and funds.

"The nodal agency of rural electrification included Hathras in it. A proposal was given that all the houses of the villages will be electrified. A transformer of 63 KVA, four transformers of 25 KVA, 1.57 km of high-tension line, the low tension of three faces of 1.54 km and low tension single face of 0.62 km..all these proposals have been sent to me. The Centre sanctioned its TPR on December 20, 2013. The rural Electrification Corporation gave the sanction letter to the state government on January 6, 2014," he added.

He said on the basis of that, south DVVNL (Uttar Pradesh`s electrification company) tendered it and the state government on September 27, 2014, assigned a company named Accurate Transformers to do electrification of this village.

"DVVNL on February 26, 2015, sent a letter to the Centre stating that Nagla Fatela is still an unelectrified village. 1,529 villages of Uttar Pradesh were devoid of electrification. On April 1, 2015, the Uttar Pradesh Government gave us the list and this village was included in that. The Chief Engineer of DVVNL, Agra sent us a report," he added.

The Power Minister further said on October 30, 2015, the state government gave the Centre a completion status and serial number 34 of a list of the villages where there has been electrification.

"It was stated in serial number 34 that the work of electrification is over in Nagla Fatela. The officials of DVVNL conducted testing and verification of the whole system and also got it verified by the contractor on November 24, 2015. The verification report stated that there has been electrification in 82 houses, electrification was not done in the houses of the poor," he added.

He said it got revealed that electricity was used by some people from agricultural tube wells.

"The state government has to look into that. If the Uttar Pradesh Government stops these kinds of theft of electricity, then I think the state would be very much beneficial. The Prime Minister`s announcement was based on information and `Garv` app. We load the whole data in that app," he added.

Prime Minister Modi, in his Independence Day address, said that in Nagla Fatela electricity has reached after 70 years.

He said, "Nagla Fatela village is just three hours from Delhi, but Delhi took 70 years to send electricity to it".According to reports, the gram

According to reports, the gram pradhan of Nagla Fatela village has refuted the claim of PM that pictures tweeted from the handle of Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal were not of their village and no programme was organized in the village on Independence Day.

The Nagla Fatela village comes under Sasni tehsil of Hathras district in Uttar Pradesh.