The Centre has agreed to release Rs 800 crore to Punjab under the Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) for modernising and upgrading power infrastructure in rural areas.
A decision to this effect was taken by Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal at a meeting with Punjab’s deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal in New Delhi today. Goyal said the project would witness complete separation of agriculture and non-agriculture feeders facilitating judicious power supply to agriculture and non-agri consumers in rural areas with improvement in hours of power supply.
On Badal’s request for sale of surplus power from Punjab, the Minister said the Centre would examine this proposal very soon and asked the state unility Powercom to submit a detailed proposal in this regard.