Jyotigram Yojana

In 1988, in a attempt to enhance efficiency of the rural electrification in the state of Gujarat. The government implemented a Flat tariff system. Which charged a fixed tariff corresponding to the horsepower of the submersible pumps used by the farmers. As this tariff system did not increase the tariff in timely intervals and the farmers installed more tubewells, the demand for electricity from farmers increased significantly. This also led to overexploitation of groundwater resources. The Power distribution companies were in severe financial stress by catering to the substantial increase in demand for a three-phase power supply. Much of the losses were attributed to the farm subsidies relating to electricity. Despite the opposition from the farmers, the government began to regulate the supply of electricity to rural areas to 12-14 hours by the end of 2000. Further, owing to the politics in the state of giving free power to the farmers, the quality and the timing of the power supply in the state deteriorated. To overcome this crisis, the government called for suggestions on power sector reforms in the state. Many institutions, including International Water Management Institute (IWMI) made recommendations to the government of Gujarat. In September 2003, the government of Gujarat accepted the IWMIs recommendations and launched Jyotigram yojana as a pilot project in eight districts of the state.[6][7]

Among various power sector reforms undertaken by the government of Gujarat, Jyotigram yojana was an important milestone. By 2006, the scheme had reached almost 95 percent of the state's 18,000 villages.[7] The key aim of the scheme was to provide uninterrupted, good quality, scheduled, and subsidized power supply to the irrigating farmers for eight hours, separated by uninterrupted, unsubsidized 24 hours supply to villagers for daily life usage.[8] This objective was achieved by separating the feeder lines. Dedicated feeder lines were assigned to supply full-voltage power supply to irrigating farmers and household users. Alongside this, the regulator was allowed to raise the tariff every year. By doing this, Gujarat became the first state in the country to undertake the radical reform of separating the feeder lines.[9] This mammoth task was achieved by carrying out the replacement and complete rewiring of high and low tension cables, transformers, new electricity poles, etc.[10] The scheme was recognized by the then UPA-II government and was accepted as a flagship scheme for 12th Five-year plan, which envisages to bring in "Faster, Sustainable and More Inclusive Growth". Inspired by the achivements of this scheme, states like Punjab, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra showed keen interest in implementing a similar policy. [11]

One of the impacts of the Jyotigram Yojana was; most of the political parties changing their electoral posture of giving free farm electricity in various states in the country. On the financial impact of the scheme, a research conducted and published by Deutsche Bank found: Gujarat managed to reduce the Aggregated Technical and Commercial losses (AT&C) from 35 percent in 2004 to 23.7 percent in 2007, which was further reduced to 19 percent in 2014, whereas the country average was 26 percent. This made Gujarat a power surplus state, leading to an additional revenue to the state.[12] Industrial power consumption also increased at 42 percent, though the tariff was charged at 20 percent higher. Thus, increasing the revenues for power distribution companies.[13] Another aspect this policy had was in the Health sector. (Chen,et.al., 2019) in their research showed, after implementation of Jyotigram Yojana, access to reliable electricity in the state improved, the scheme also increased the overall operational capacity of health facilities in the state. There was also a significant increase in the availability and functionality of various health services, which were easily available to the people through the usage of television and the easy working of various medical equipments.[14]