Sanjay.Dutta

New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government's implementation of two energy schemes over the last two years in Uttar Pradesh overshadowed the Samajwadi Party's outreach programmes and provided fuel for the BJP's juggernaut in the state.

Speedy electrification of villages, combined with steps to improve power supply in the state, and distribution of free LPG connection to poor households brought about immediate and tangible improvement in the daily lives of beneficiaries.

This established a connect with people about the PM's development politics plank.

In his first speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort, Modi had on August 15, 2014 announced that all the 18,000 unelectrified villages in the country will get power over the next 1,000 days. On May 1, 2016, the PM launched Ujjwala, the 8,000-crore scheme to provide free of cost LPG connection to five crore BPL (below poverty line) households through 2019.

While the schemes have progressed at a healthy trot throughout the country, they were implemented aggressively in UP by two young performers in the Modi government - power, coal and renewable energy minister Piyush Goyal and petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

Consider: In the two years that the village electrification plan was launched, 1,464 villages out of the state's 1,529 unelectrified villages have been electrified till date. This stands out against electrification of 23 villages between 2010 and 2012 under BSP's rule and three villages since 2012 under the SP's tenure, government data show.

Simultaneously, supply of power in the state went up by 20% to 39,718 million units (MU) in 2015-16 from 33,173 in 2013-14 because of steps taken to decongest the transmission capacity and strengthen the grid in the two years.

In the nine months since Ujjwala was launched, kitchens in 50.26 lakh poor households became smokeless till January. This roughly works out to 12,500 beneficiary households in each assembly segment in the state.

Another popular touch point for the Modi government's development agenda was created by the Ujala scheme to provide cheap LED bulbs to households. About 1.5 crore LED bulbs have been distributed till date, saving consumers in 40 towns in the state Rs 780 crore per year in power bill.

All this progress has been achieved by leveraging information technology and databank created during the UPA'S tenure to identify and pinpoint delivery of service under the schemes. In comparison, the laptop-mobile scheme as well as the latest initiatives such as dial an ambulance failed to find resonance in the daily lives of a majority section of voters in the state.