A performance audit of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India on the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) and Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (SAUBHAGYA) has found significant gaps in the Modi government’s claim of 100% rural electrification. The report has found that the estimation of households for electrification shown on the scheme dashboard was reduced to 248.48 lakh from the 300 lakh households recorded in the scheme guidelines and, accordingly, the government declared it had achieved 100% of the target by March 2019.The CAG report says that the Union Ministry of Power (MoP) told the auditor that new unelectrified households, coming up on a day-to-day basis in states, were not covered under SAUBHAGYA. The “electrification of households was a dynamic process”, and the scheme only was a particular period. Hence, its objectives had been achieved, the government told auditors. CAG also found duplicate claims and that the work of feeder separation – so that agricultural electricity feeders are physically separated from non-agricultural feeders – was not fully covered under DDUGJY.The DDUGJY was launched in December 2014 for strengthening the electricity distribution system, while SAUBHAGYA was launched in October 2017 to ensure last mile connectivity and electricity connections to all unelectrified households in rural areas.The CAG report tabled in parliament during the winter session has found that while the estimated number of unelectrified households to be covered under SAUBHAGYA was 300 lakh, that number was reduced to 248.48 lakh, and the dashboard claimed 100% electrification target had been reached upon the electrification of 262.84 lakh households by March 2019.“Analysis of the information received during audit and that available on the dashboard revealed that estimation of households for electrification shown on the dashboard was reduced to 248.48 lakh from 300 lakh households contained in the [SAUBHAGYA] scheme guidelines. Achievement of 100 per cent against the target was declared by March 2019 accordingly,” the report said.“Seven states had reported 19.10 lakh unelectrified households as of 31 March 2019. Thus, audit could not ascertain genuineness of electrification of households,” it added.The report also said that of the total 262.84 lakh households that were said to have been electrified, only 151.60 lakh households were electrified under SAUBHAGYA.Also read: Modi Announces 100% Electrification – But That Doesn’t Mean Everyone Has PowerThe report noted that the MoP had accepted that around 152.30 lakh households were electrified under SAUBHAGYA, 73.60 lakh households under DDUGJY, including Rural Electrification and Prime Minister Development Projects (Rural), and 36.90 lakh households under State RE (Rural Electrification) schemes.“It was further stated that since the plan of universal household electrification was conceived under SAUBHAGYA for the first time, hence, progress monitoring and saturation-based approach were followed in line with the overall policies of the government and, therefore, the achievements co-created by the central government and the state governments were shown under SAUBHAGYA,” the report said.The report stated that while the number of households electrified till March 2019 was 262.84 lakh, there was a gap of 2.96 lakh, which is the number of electrified households for which household-wise details were not available. The number of electrified households for which household-wise details were available, therefore, stood at 259.88 lakh.The MoP stated to the auditor in April 2021 and November 2024 that during implementation of the scheme, the progress of households electrified by states has been uploaded on the portal, which included households electrified under SAUBHAGYA as well as other parallel schemes being implemented in the states including under state plans.“Some of the states had not provided village census code/provided incorrect village wise census code in few cases just before completion of the scheme under state plans thereby resulting in the gap of 2.96 lakh households,” the CAG report said.States flagged unelectrified householdsThe report said that states had repeatedly reported unelectrified households in March 2019 and again in March 2021. The Monitoring Committee (MC) sanctioned 241.95 lakh unelectrified households for electrification through the grid under the SAUBHAGYA, out of which 149.58 lakh households were electrified through the grid up to March 2019.Seven states including Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Manipur, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh reported unelectrified households and requested for extension of timeline, which was granted up to March 31, 2020.The audit found that 12.57 lakh households were electrified in these seven states up to the extension period and 6.14 lakh households were electrified during the next one year, i.e., from April 2020 to March 2021.Despite the time extensions given, the objective of electrification of all households was not achieved, as 11.76 lakh unelectrified households in eight states – Assam, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh were again sanctioned for electrification by the Monitoring Committee under DDUGJY. Of these, 4.31 lakh households in five states were provided electricity connections by December 2023.The report said that in June 2022, the MoP stated that new unelectrified households which were coming up on day-to-day basis in the states were not covered under SAUBHAGYA:“The households under discussion in the ninth MC meeting, held on 30 March 2021, were newly willing households which were later covered under DDUGJY. It [the MoP] added that electrification of households was a dynamic process, and SAUBHAGYA was only for a particular period which covered electrification of households identified up to March 2019, and the states had declared electrification of all willing households identified up to March 2019, hence the objective of the scheme had been achieved.”The report has also flagged duplicate claims for the same work under the scheme. It said that electricity connections are allowed to Below Poverty Line (BPL) households under DDUGJY and to economically poor households under SAUBHAGYA. In two states, 16,728 households were released connections under DDUGJY as well as SAUBHAGYA, which led to duplicate claims for the same work by the contractor.“Despite getting the required grant under DDUGJY, a grant of Rs 7.53 crore from REC [Rural Electrification Corporation] was also claimed under SAUBHAGYA, resulting in double payment to DISCOMs [distribution companies],” the report said.One of the objectives of the DDUGJY was to increase the hours of power supply to non-agricultural consumers and provide assured power supply to agricultural consumers by separating agricultural and non-agricultural feeders. However, the audit found that the total number of agricultural feeders separated under the scheme till March 2022 stood at 7,833 as against 9,019 sanctioned by the MC and 16,500 approved by the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA).Also read: It’s Time to Shift the Rural Electrification Goalpost“Overall, the sanction of less[er] number of works for feeder separation than the number approved by CCEA and execution of even lesser number than the total feeders sanctioned, reflected that the work of feeder separation was not fully covered under DDUGJY.“Further, significant variations in the number of feeder separation works actually executed vis-à-vis the numbers sanctioned by Monitoring Committee and with reference to the targets submitted to CCEA for approval imply that the state-wise requirement of feeder separation was not assessed well,” the report said.The CAG report also pointed to delay in award of work of 81.65% of the projects in 24 states and two Union Territories. There was also a delay in 91.74%, i.e., 555 of 605 completed projects in 27 states and three Union Territories. The audit found a delay of more than 24 months in 263 projects (47%) in 19 states out of 27 states and three Union Territories.