280 mn people don't have power connection: Goyal

April 12, 2015 16:35

Around 280 million people in the country do not have basic electricity connection and the Centre is aiming at supplying power to all homes by 2019, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said today.

"Around 280 million people in India to this day do not have electricity connection at their homes. Till date, they are denied the basic thing like power," said the minister for Power, Coal and New and Renewable Energy.

He was speaking at Graduation ceremony at Indian School of Business (ISB) campus in Mohali.

"Country's problem is not about the amount of power generation or the ability to generate. We have surplus power in large parts of the country," he said, adding that "two real root causes of agony" are non-availability of fuel, coal and gas, as well as not being able transmit power all through the country.

The Centre is looking to provide power to all homes by 2019, he said. "The mission we have set out to achieve to get power for all by 2019 not by merely slogans but by actionable agenda by true action on the ground."

Goyal said his ministry is focusing on energy efficiency in a big way in a country where AT&C losses are as high as 25 per cent.

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