Spread awareness on PM Surya Ghar Scheme: Collector

Nandyal: District Collector G Rajakumari has instructed electricity department officials and vendors to promote awareness among the people regarding the Central government’s PM Surya Ghar Scheme and ensure its effective utilisation by every household.

She conducted a review meeting on the implementation of the PM Surya Ghar and Kusum Schemes along with Joint Collector C Vishnucharan at the video-conference hall of the Collectorate on Thursday.

During the meeting, the District Collector emphasised that the PM Surya Ghar Scheme aims to reduce electricity costs for consumers. She urged officials to conduct widespread publicity and awareness campaigns to ensure that every family benefits from the scheme.

She mentioned that so far, 87,632 Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) consumers in the district have registered for the installation of solar panel connections. Each constituency has been assigned a target of installing solar panels on 10,000 houses, but the goal should be exceeded, and a plan should be developed to equip at least 100,000 households with solar panels, she directed.

The Collector highlighted that subsidies of up to Rs 30,000 for a one-kilowatt unit, Rs 60,000 for two-kilowatt units and Rs 78,000 for three-kilowatt units are being provided under the scheme. She also mentioned that arrangements were being made to facilitate bank loans for the remaining amount. The officials were instructed to deploy secretariat energy assistants to visit every household and educate consumers about the scheme. Furthermore, she stressed the importance of explaining to consumers how the electricity generated from solar panels would be supplied to the power grid for distribution.

The Collector also directed officials to identify local vendors in each mandal and allocate specific areas to them. She instructed that registered consumers should receive swift approvals and vendors should ensure the rapid installation of solar panels. Additionally, she advised vendors to procure the necessary solar panels in advance from Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

Under the PM Kusum Scheme, the District Collector instructed electricity department officials to submit proposals for acquiring land for 130 power substations across the district. She emphasised the need to acquire 143 acres of land in Kadumuru village of Miduthuru mandal and also suggested utilising 3,000 acres identified for compressed biogas plants for setting up power substations.

APSPDCL SE Sudhakar Kumar, EE (Technical) Nageswara Rao, Nandyal EE Srinivasulu Reddy, Dhone EE Kamalakar Rao, LDM Ravindra Kumar and other officials attended the meeting.