The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, has said that the Government is committed to providing access to electricity to every village in the country by 2009. "The Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojana is one of the most important promises we are committed to fulfilling during the tenure of our Government", he added.

The Prime Minister was launching the Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojana here today.

Dr. Singh said that every user of energy must be made aware of its economic and environmental cost. "Even when governments offer subsidies to certain categories of users and there is scope for that, they must understand the relevance of this subsidy and have respect for the asset being provided to them. I therefore urge our political leadership to take a more long-term and rational perspective in pursuing our energy policy", he added. The Prime Minister said, "The challenge of economic generation, distribution and pricing of electricity has to be addressed in a non-partisan manner so that we can in fact ensure rapid spread of electrification across the country, and we can attract simultaneously massive new investment in this vital area. I would very much like this matter to be a subject matter of broad national consensus cutting across party lines in our country."

Following is the text of the Prime Minister's address:

"It gives me immense pleasure to be here today to launch the Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojana. This is indeed a very special and solemn moment for all of us. For me it is a very special privilege that our Government is launching this programme in the presence of Smt. Sonia Gandhi.

I am deeply grateful to you Madam, for your presence here today. On you, has fallen, has come to rest, the immense burden and responsibility of providing leadership to a party that was orphaned by the tragic demise of our beloved Prime Minister Shri Rajiv Gandhi. In taking this onerous responsibility left behind by Rajivji, you have been a pillar of strength, a beacon of hope and a source of immense inspiration not just to the Congress Party, not just to the United Progressive Alliance, but also to the ordinary people, men and women of our vast country.

In dedicating this programme of rural electrification to the sacred and beloved memory of Rajivji, we salute his great contribution to processes of nation building. Rajivji was a visionary, a modernist and a secular-minded person who had a rational outlook, and respected, along the lines of Panditji, the scientific temper. His arrival on the national scene was momentous, even if under tragic circumstances. We all know very well that he was a deeply private person and shunned public life; yet he rose to the challenge forced upon him, and offered our wounded nation new hope in its future.

When he accepted the responsibility of leading our nation, he very quickly settled down to the task of thinking about the future of our ancient land and leading it into a Brave New World of the 21st century. In my many interactions with him as Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission in those days, I was always struck by his far-sightedness; his grasp of changing trends in a fast-changing world; his attention to detail; his impatience with bureaucratic delays and controls. He very quickly understood both the nature of the challenge of modernising our vast national economy and of strengthening the grassroot democracy as well as systems of government to minimise the scope for arbitrary exercise of power and the corruption that goes with it. His passion for computerisation and modernisation of our infrastructure was only matched by his great passion for rural development and panchayat raj. He had a sound grasp of the two sides of the Indian reality - a new, modern, outward-oriented and youthful India, and also the traditional, rural, under-privileged India.

It is this balance in his perspective - an understanding of the challenge of change and of the needs of ordinary men and women - that informs the programmes of our Government. It is based on this perspective that we have made a firm commitment to our people in the National Common Minimum Programme to provide a "New Deal for Rural India"; to create world class infrastructure; to ensure urban renewal and rural regeneration; to invest in the education and health of our people; to strengthen the foundations of our knowledge economy; to energise our industrial and agricultural economies; and, above all, to provide gainful employment to all those who seek it.

I hope you have all had the opportunity to read the first "Report To The Nation" that our government prepared last month on the eve of the Budget Session of Parliament. You would have seen from that report that we have taken several steps to implement many of the key promises made in our National Common Minimum Programme. Few governments in recent times have had this track record of monitoring the implementation of electoral promises.

I am proud to say that our Government is keeping a close track of this and regular reports are being prepared. I am, therefore, delighted that today we are taking one more step in implementing a very important promise we have made to our people. The complete electrification of all our villages is a solemn commitment we had made to our people. Our Government is committed to providing access to electricity to every village in the country by the year 2009. The Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojana is, therefore, one of the most important promises we are committed to fulfilling during the tenure of our Government.

The electrification of rural India is a key foundation stone in the modernisation of our agriculture and in improving the quality of life of our citizens particularly those living in rural India. We have already taken far too long a time to bring the light and energy that electrification provides to rural India. We cannot delay the implementation of this basic commitment any longer. We shall honour it this time in full measure.

Electricity is today a basic necessity. However, it is necessary that users remember it as an economic asset and hence, has to be valued and used judiciously. Every user of energy must be made aware of its economic and environmental cost. Even when governments offer subsidies to certain categories of users and there is scope for that, they must understand the relevance of this subsidy and have respect for the asset being provided to them. I therefore urge our political leadership to take a more long-term and rational perspective in pursuing our energy policy. As a country of one billion people and a dynamic economy growing at rates of over 7 per cent per annum, we are going to consume more energy and we will have therefore to generate this energy. We need to work towards more rational pricing and distribution policies to ensure the new investment required to sustain this growth process.

The challenge of economic generation, distribution and pricing of electricity has to be addressed in a non-partisan manner so that we can in fact ensure rapid spread of electrification across the country, and we can attract simultaneously massive new investment in this vital area. I would very much like this matter to be a subject matter of broad national consensus cutting across party lines in our country. The Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojana is a very important first step in our journey to full electrification of the country and the assured supply of quality power to every household in our country. It is, of course, an important first step, a very big first step. I commit our Government to implementing this programme with utmost dedication and commitment .

If Rajivji were to be with us today nothing would give him greater comfort than to see how many of his ideas have now come to be accepted as the reality of our development thinking for the 21st Century. He was, as I said, a true visionary. He was also a very practical and hard-working person. It is this combination of vision and practical common sense, of passion and hard work that endeared him to so many in so short a period of time.

Indeed, it can be said without exaggeration that India has not seen another political leader who in so brief a time endeared himself to so many of our ordinary men and women, did so much and initiated so many new projects and programmes for the future that have all borne fruit in a short time span. I salute the memory of this wise, gentle and affectionate leader who was our youngest Prime Minister. In dedicating this electrification programme to him we honour ourselves in honouring him.

I wish the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana all success."