Modi suffers embarrassment over I-Day claim on village electrification, as PIB under him issues "denial"

Photo tweeted by Modi of Nagla Fatela villagers

By Our Representative
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has suffered a major embarrassment when the Government of India's Press Information Bureau (PIB) was forced to issue a statement which virtually amounted to denying Modi's claim in his Independence Day speech that a village near Delhi, Nagla Fatela, received electricity under him 70 years after Independence.
Modi, in his Independence Day speech had said that, over the last one year, out of 18,000 villages, more than 10,000 villages had been electrified, and one of them was village of Nagla Fatela, which "is only three hours from Delhi, but it took more than 70 years for it to get electricity."
He added, "I have been told they are with us, watching this celebration of Independence Day”. His official twitter handle, @PMOIndia went so far as to post a photograph sayig, “People of Nagla Phatela watching the Independence Day celebrations for the first time. More power to them. :)”
A Finance Express story, on the very next day, found that there was no such thing, even as quoting the gram pradhan of the village refuting Modi's claim saying that pictures tweeted by Modi, and thereafter by Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal were "not of their village and no programme was organized in the village on Independence Day."

Power Minister's tweet remains intact

“No programme was organized in our village. The picture with children watching the Independence Day programme does not belong to our village,” the village pradhan said. The report quoted "people in the village" as saying that that "poles have been set up and electricity metres have been installed in the houses but there is no power supply."
The PIB was forced to come up with a statement, titled "Electrification of Village Nagla Fatela, Hathras -Facts at a Glance", only confirming FE report. It said, the village in Hathras district of UP "was proposed by the Uttar Pradesh Government under 12th plan of Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) and the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for this purpose was submitted through State Level Steering committee, headed by Chief Secretary of the State on date July 13, 2013."
"For this village, the Detailed Project Report (DPR) proposed connections to all households including creation of infrastructure one transformer of 63kVA, four transformers of 25kVA, HT 1.57 km, LT 1.54 km (three phase) and LT 0.62 km (single phase)", the PIB continued.
"The DPR was sanctioned by Government of India on December 20, 2013 and sanction letter was released by Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) on January 6, 2014", the PIB said, adding, the power distribution company (DISCOM, Agra), "confirmed on February 26, 2015 that village Nagla Fatela is still un-electrified."
The PIB further said, DISCOM Agra, "reported in October 2015 that infrastructure work for electrification of the village Nagla Fatela has been completed and the village has been electrified. Accordingly the village has been shown as electrified" in official records.
While PMO deleted its tweet which showed a photo of group of people allegedly from Nagla Fatela village and watching his speech on a TV set, Goyal, the power minister, has not (click HERE).
Goyal, in fact, went further and tweeted not one but several photos of allegedly from the same village showing people watching Independence Day celebrations claiming that they were in the newly electrified villages.
A top site comments, "From the PIB clarification, it is abundantly clear that not only did the Prime Minister make a false claim on his achievement, his government had also not played any part even in the process to create infrastructure to electrify Nagla Fatela village."

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Counterview Desk
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Counterview Desk
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