Goyal confident of all states joining discom scheme 'UDAY'

Power Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday expressed confidence that all the states in the country will join the Centre's 'UDAY' scheme for revival of debt-laden power distribution companies.Himachal Pradesh today became the fourth state after Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand and Rajasthan to join the scheme."Congratulations to Himachal Pradesh on joining UDAY (Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana). We are confident of every single state joining UDAY," Goyal said in a tweet.The minister further said he met the heads of all the banks with exposure to discoms."Met the heads of all the banks with exposure to discoms. All banks are fully participating in UDAY," he tweeted.The scheme is optional and gets operationalised by signing a pact between states, state discoms and the Centre. The central government's UDAY aims at reviving ailing state electricity boards and operational efficiencies of power distribution companies. It envisages on reducing interest burden, cost of power and AT&C losses.Consequently, the discoms will become sustainable to provide adequate and reliable power enabling 24x7 power supply. The scheme provides that states  would take over 75 percent debt of discoms, as on September 30 in two  years.