Giving a further fillip to the Government’s mission of bringing electricity to every household and to empower the rural youth, Ministry of Power partnered today with the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship to train the manpower in six states for speedy implementation of its SAUBHAGYA scheme.SAUBHAGYA (Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojna) aims to achieve universal household electrification in all parts of the country in a time bound manner. Around 4 crore households are expected to get electricity connections under the scheme.Thanking the Union Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas and Minister for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister of State (IC) for Power and New and Renewable Energy, Shri R.K. Singh said that this partnership would be of great help as lack of trained manpower has been the main constraint in speedy implementation of the Government’s electrification programme under SAUBHAGYA. He said that a large number of trained manpower is required for implementing various programmes in the power sector, and SAUBHAGYA alone needs more than 35,000 trained persons. Once this trained manpower is available, it will help us in meeting our daily targets for electrification, he added.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan said, “SAUBHAGYA is a scheme with estimated expenditure of 16000 crore, out of which 25 per cent is estimated to be spent on wages and human resource deployed for the project. This is a big employment opportunity for skilled workforce and we will work jointly with Ministry of Power across the nation to ensure that we avail this opportunity for our youth and help them better their livelihood.”The launch of this parnership was done through a video conferencing with States where eminent dignitaries including Ministers from State governments, were present. The Ministers engaged to discuss local challenges and targets to support the project to have the best output.The scheme is undertaken as a special project under the government’s Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY). Around 47,000 Distribution Lineman-Multi Skills and 8,500 Technical Helpers will be trained to meet the requirement of power sector.
The workforce already engaged by contractors implementing this project will be considered first for the skill development programmes. Incase if any shortfalls arise, these will be met by ITI Electrician trade pass-outs from the local ITIs. Total 48 hours of training (12 hours Orientation + 36 hours Bridge course) will be provided to the existing workforce of the contractors and 120 hours of training will be provided to the fresh and ITI (Electrician Trade) pass-outs.As the scheme is to be implemented across the country with 200 districts as major focus area, the skilling initiatives are proposed to be delivered in a decentralized mode at district level. The training infrastructures available with ITI’s at district level as well as the infrastructures available with the State Power Distribution Utilities will be utilized for skill training of the candidates ensuring successful implementation of the scheme.SAUBHAGYA is more than a mission to provide electricity to the entire nation and ensure energy security. Since SAUBHAGYA offers many collateral benefits, which includes creating employment and entrepreneurial opportunities for the rural youth, it will end up in bringing new hope and happiness into people’s lives.