Centre Recommends Fund Cuts for States Missing UDAY Targets: R K Singh

The Centre has recommended reduction in power sector funds of the states that would not preserve performance benchmarks set under the second version of UDAY scheme, which is at the draft stage, Power Minister R K Singh said.

The government plans the next wave of reforms in the power distribution sector and has shared the draft with states, the minister told.

The Centre in November 2015 had launched the Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) to bring about operational and financial turnaround of debt-laden power distribution companies. “We have planned second wave of distribution reforms and shared the draft with states. We are going to combine the features of UDAY scheme (meant for revival of debt-laden discoms) Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) and Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS),” the power minister believed.

Expounding further, the minister said, “We would add features like system strengthening, expansion of access, loss reduction and reforms in one package. The funds would be targeted towards exceeding those reforms (targets). The funds release would fall if the trajectory of loss reduction (by discoms) and reforms reduce. It would happen quickly.”