Union Minister of New and Renewable Energy and Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Shri Pralhad Joshi today urged people for taking the advantage of the PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana more to avail the benefit up to 300 free units of electricity with an allocation of Rs 75,021 crore.
The Minister was addressing a review meeting in Kolkata with the officials of various organisations engaged in promotion of renewable energy in West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand and eight North-eastern States.
He advised officials from the states to enhance the implementation of PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana in their States. Shri Joshi said that West Bengal can do much better regarding the progress of the Scheme in the state.
The Minister also said that he has requested concerned Ministers of West Bengal for providing more support to the scheme which aims to light up 1 crore households by providing up to 300 units of free electricity with central Government support upto Rs 78,000.
Union Minister Joshi said that the registration for the scheme has touched 1.5 crore in the entire country and the number of households benefitted has reached 7.06 lakh so far. Shri Joshi said, the scheme should be implemented in good spirit without meddling into politics for the benefit of the people of a State.
The Union Minister also urged the State to come forward with an offer of subsidy along with the Central subsidy to make the scheme more profitable for the citizens of the state. The Union Minister also held a meeting with the solar panel installation vendors and service providers from West Bengal.
He took the stock of their challenges and discussed potential solutions to improve the rooftop solar installations under PM Surya Ghar scheme. The review meeting today was attended by Shri Sudeep Jain, Additional Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and senior officers of participating states, REC, DISCOM, and agencies of renewable energy of States.