New Delhi, October 18: The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has sanctioned for electrification of 54 villages in Manipur under Remote Village Electrification (RVE) Programme.

Under the Programme, the Ministry released a total of Rs 1020.86 lakh for Manipur during the last three years � Rs 381 lakh in 2005-06, Rs 585.59 lakh in 2006-07 and Rs 54.27 lakh in 2007-08.Sources from the Ministry said that the Ministry received proposals from the State Governments for financial support for electrification through non-conventional energy sources of duly identified remote un-electrified census villages and un-electrified hamlets of electrified census villages.

The Rural Electrification Corporation carried out the task of identification of remote villages and hamlets.

Proposals were sanctioned once they were complete in all respects with required documents and were in conformity with the RVE Programme.

Electrification being one of the main infrastructural requirements for agricultural and agro-industrial development, employment generation and improvement in the quality of life of people in rural areas, during the Chief Ministers' Conference in March 2001, the Government of India resolved to complete the electrification of all villages by 2007 and to cover all households by the end of the 11th Plan by 2012.For completing the time-bound programme of electrification of all remote census villages in the country by 2007, the Ministry created the Remote village Electrification Division in October 2003.It was estimated that there were about 18,000 un-electrified villages in remote and difficult areas such as forests, hills, deserts and islands in the country.

The objective of the RVE Programme is to electrify all the remote villages and remote hamlets of electrified census villages through non-conventional energy sources such as solar energy, small hydro power, bio-mass, wind energy, hybrid system etc.

In the North Eastern States under the RVE Programme, the Ministry sanctioned for 128 villages of Arunachal Pradesh with the release of Rs 453.39 lakh during the last three years; 462 villages of Assam (Rs 2240.35 lakh); 70 villages of Meghalaya (Rs 238.32 lakh) and 3 villages of Nagaland (Rs.17.34 lakh).

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