Claim: If we talk about providing electricity to villages on the basis of work done in 2013, it would have taken a couple of more decades to accomplish this work.
Fact: Misleading. Between 2005-06 and 2013-14, the previous government electrified, on average, 12,000 villages every year.
Explanation: The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government had connected 108,280 villages to the grid between 2005-06 and 2013-14-that is, on average, about 12,000 villages every year. In 2013-14, 1,197 villages were electrified–the lowest during its last term.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government electrified the remaining 18,452 villages in four years–or about 4,600 villages every year.
As many as 18,452 villages were identified as unelectrified, as per the 2011 census, as on April 1, 2015. The government electrified 18,374 villages according to its dashboard. The government claimed to have electrified all villages by April 28, 2018 according to this Lok Sabha reply.
Of the 18,452 villages remaining, most were “located in highly remote and inaccessible areas or areas plagued by insurgency and left-wing extremism”. However, many households and villages said to have been electrified were not receiving electricity or were receiving patchy supply, our three-part investigation in late 2018 had found, as FactChecker reported on November 2, 2018 from Leisang, India’s last village to be connected to the grid (in Manipur) and from Uttar Pradesh on November 3, 2018.
