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Will Naveen’s dream come true?

Bhubaneswar: With inflation rate skyrocketing, the Orissa Government was apprehensive about completion of its dream project of electrifying all the villages in the State before the next elections due in 2009, official sources said.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who on Wednesday reviewed the progress made in rural electrification under the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) and the State’s own scheme like Biju Gram Jyoti (BGJ), expressed apprehension that the Centre could curtail the total budgetary allocation under the RGGVY from Rs. 12,000 crores to Rs. 5,000 crores in view of the high inflation rate, sources said.

Orissa, which was identified as the State having maximum of 60,000 villages and hamlets without electricity in the country, was supposed to get Rs. 3,500 crores for undertaking rural electrification under the RGGVY. Though all the 30 districts in the State were covered under the RGGVY, the Centre had so far sanctioned only Rs. 280 crores against the requirement of Rs. 800 crores for electrifying four districts like Angul, Nayagarh, Ganjam and Gajapati districts in the first phase, they said.

“No funds were till now allocated for beginning second phase of RGGVY work in Balasore, Jajpur and Puri districts,” said a senior official after the review meeting.

The official indicated that Mr. Naveen Patnaik would soon write a letter to the Union Energy Minister seeking early release of funds for undertaking rural electrification activities. Mr. Patnaik, however, asked the officials to meet the target of completing electrification of at least 8,000 villages by February 2009. – PTI

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