The Greenpeace, in association with People's Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR), will begin the social audit of Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojna (RGGVV) in Azamgarh district on Thursday. The audit process will continue till April 25.

Talking to journalists on Wednesday, Maitree Dasgupta of Greenpeace and Lenin Raghuvanshi of PVCHR said that the basic objective of the social audit is to bring out the facts regarding the implementation of the scheme and examine whether the targets of the scheme have been achieved or not.

The audit will be conducted in eight villages of Mehnagar and Tarwa blocks of Azamgarh district. Later, a public hearing programme will be held on May 10.

They said, "The RGGVY scheme is a flagship programme of the Central government for rural electrification. But the very principle of the scheme of providing energy through a centralised grid-based system is flawed."

A village is considered electrified if 10% of the households are provided power connections, but this does not ensure timely, regular and quality power supply to all, they said, and added that according to RGGVY data, 93.3% work of village electrification has been achieved in the district so far. However, only 48% (50,191 out of 1,04,603) BPL households entitled for free connection have received the facility.

They said that the findings of the social audit and recommendations would be presented to the Planning Commission and the Central government. They have also invited the UP government and district administration to witness the social audit.