Piyush Goyal launches GARV-II App

Piyush Goyal launching the “GARV-II”-Grameen Vidyutikaran Mobile Application to track household Electrification & Citizen Engagement (SAMVAD), developed by the Rural Electrification Corporation Limited (REC), in New Delhi 

New Delhi

Piyush Goyal launched the ‘GARV-II’ App , as the next step in Government of India’s aim to provide access to electricity to all households in the country. Under this module, village-wise and habitation-wise base line data on household electrification for all States, as provided by them, has been incorporated.

Goyal said that the data in respect of about 6 lakh villages, with more than 15 lakh habitations having 17 crore people, has been mapped for tracking progress on household electrification in each of the habitations of these villages, which is a remarkable progress over the previous GARV App. 

In the earlier version of the ‘GARV’ App, launched in October 2015 for the effective and efficient monitoring of village electrification programme, the data of only 18,452 un-electrified villages had been mapped and a 12-stage milestone-based monitoring mechanism was put in place.

Goyal further said that this app is an important part of the ‘Digital India Initiative’ of Government of India and will contribute in further development of the villages. In order to bring more transparency, the Minister asked the Power Ministry officials to place more details regarding discoms, tenders and contracts in public domain.

For places, where internet facilities are not available, Goyal suggested to publish information regarding rural electrification projects like contractor’s name, amount sanctioned by the Government, deadline of the project etc. to be put on boards on the working sites in villages. This will help people in better monitoring of Government’s work, he added.

Goyal, also urged State governments to determine an average price for electricity connections for APL (Above Poverty Line) families across the State so that they can be given electricity connections through the option of paying by easy monthly installments. The Minister said that the Government aims to achieve ‘24x7 Power for All’ and does not distinguish between BPL and APL households.

Minister presented awards to the best performing GVAs as well as the Digital India Award 2016 to GARV for featuring in the Top 3 best Apps that have played a pioneering role in bringing Good Governance in the country.