New Delhi, Apr 30: Power minister Anant G Geete today said there was need to generate an additional one lakh mw power with an investment of nearly Rs eight crore to achieve the target of providing every Indian household with electricity by 2012. He said this while introducing the Electricity Bill, which seeks to consolidate laws relating to generation, transmission and distribution of power besides rationalisation of tariff, in the Rajya Sabha. "Even today, 80,000 villages of India have not been electrified till date. This means, we are able to supply electricity to only 50 per cent of the country," the minister said.
Initiating a discussion on the bill, Kapil Sibal (Congress) said in order to achieve eight per cent growth target set for the 10th plan, both supply and generation of electricity must be adequate. Ajay Maroo (BJP) suggested that hydro electricity should be tapped as hydel power was cheap.


P G Narayanan (AIDMK) said the bill would bring benefit to consumers, reduce wastage of power and help farm sector.


C Ramachandraiah (TDP) said there should be a national policy on the subsidy given to farming community and the Centre should come forward to share the burden of states.

Bureau Report