T. Ramakrishnan Total cost Rs.447 crore; plan is to complete work by September next year Initially, 26 districts (other than Dharmapuri, the Nilgiris and Tirunelveli) to be covered 5.25 lakh families under Below Poverty Line to be provided free power connections CHENNAI: Three years after its launch at the national level, the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) [scheme for rural electricity infrastructure and rural household electrification] is to be taken up in Tamil Nadu. Initially, 26 districts (other than Dharmapuri, the Nilgiris and Tirunelveli) will be covered, and around 5.25 lakh families coming under the category of the Below Poverty Line (BPL) provided free power connections. [The project includes Ariyalur too. At the time of the project submission, Ariyalur had not been made a separate district]. The total cost is around Rs.447 crore. An official of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board says the plan is to complete its execution by September 2009. Aimed at electrifying all villages and habitations and providing access to electricity to all rural households, the scheme is also meant for giving free electricity connection to BPL families. The scheme has two components. In respect of the component for creating rural electricity infrastructure, the Centre will absorb 90 per cent of the cost as grant with the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC), a Central body, taking care of the remaining 10 per cent in the form of loans to States. For the other component of providing free power connections to BPL families, the entire cost is borne by the Centre. The first component accounts for about Rs.331 crore and the second, Rs.116 crore, according to an REC official. Early this year, the Centre revised the subsidy for the BPL families from Rs.1,500 per household to Rs.2,200. In March, the REC issued a modified sanction order for the State. Non-resolution of a few issues between the Centre and State governments came in the way of the scheme's implementation. A principal feature of the scheme is that management of rural distribution has to be done through franchisees, who could be non-government organisations (NGOs), users' associations, cooperatives or individual entrepreneurs. While the Centre emphasises the enforcement of this condition, the State has been arguing against the franchisee system on the ground that the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board, which has, perhaps, the highest collection recovery rate in the country, can be entrusted with the task. Similarly, the project has to be implemented through the system of turnkey. On Monday, the State issued an order, allowing the TNEB to entrust the project in 26 districts and all future works under the RGGVY to the Tamil Nadu Small Industries Corporation on a turnkey basis. With regard to the franchisee issue, a senior government official says there are various models to be followed, The Centre has not specified any particular model. However, clarity will emerge shortly. The official avers that the scheme will take off this year.