LUCKNOW, Jan. 8 -- The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has recommended regular meetings of the State-Level Standing Committee (SLSC) and District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee (DISHA) to facilitate timely corrective actions. The CAG noted that low number of meetings "adversely impacted regular monitoring and oversight" in the implementation of Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) and Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (SAUBHAGYA). In its report tabled in the Vidhan Sabha on December 24, the CAG noted that only 12 SLSC meetings were held between February 2015 and March 2022, against the required 86 monthly meetings. Similarly, only 581 DISHA meetings (27.67%) were conducted across 75 districts, against the mandated 2,100 meetings. According to the CAG, the state government acknowledged the shortfall, citing administrative reasons, including the unavailability of the chief secretary, who chairs the SLSC. Regarding DISHA meetings, the government contended that meetings could not be held due to the unavailability of members of Parliament (MPs) and district magistrates. The CAG rejected this explanation, stating that meetings could be convened even without all members present and that in the absence of the chairperson, the co-chairperson (if any) could preside. The CAG further observed that DDUGJY and SAUBHAGYA schemes (implemented by Discoms) experienced "planning and execution deficiencies" and there were "significant variations between sanctioned and executed quantities" under both schemes. It pointed out that the objective of separating agriculture and non-agriculture feeders remained largely unachieved. "One of the objectives of the DDUGJY scheme was the separation of agriculture and non-agriculture feeders to enable judicious rostering of power supply to agriculture and non-agriculture consumers in rural areas," it said. It may be mentioned that the monitoring committee approved (December 2015) feeder separation works in 11 of 16 sample districts, including Lucknow, Ayodhya, Varanasi, Kanpur Dehat, Bulandshahr and Kannauj. "The feeder separation works in these 11 districts were completed at a cost of Rs.887.36 crore. Audit analysed the status of consumers connected to agriculture feeders in seven sample districts of three DISCOMs as of December 2022 and observed that a total of 37,096 (28.78%) of 1,28,893 agriculture consumers were connected to agriculture feeders, and the remaining 71.22% of the agriculture consumers were yet to be shifted to agriculture feeders," the CAG noted, adding 38,142 non-agricultural consumers were connected to agriculture feeders. The CAG also conducted a survey to assess the implementation and impact of the SAUBHAGYA scheme in UP. It concluded that the survey provided valuable insights and the response highlighted both the achievements and shortcomings in the scheme's execution. An interesting aspect of the scheme's implementation of the survey revealed that out of 2,208 beneficiaries covered, 1,570 (71.11%) reported an increase in the study hours of their children. Further, 592 beneficiaries did not provide any remarks. Of the remaining 46 beneficiaries, seven had no children, while 39 reported no change in the study hours of their children. About the security aspect, the survey revealed that 2,184 beneficiaries (98.91%) reported an increase in mobility/security at night due to electrification of villages. On the use of consumer durables, the survey said 1,806 beneficiaries (81.79%) reported using consumer durables such as fans, irons, televisions and refrigerators etc. On the provision of LED lamps and energy meters to the beneficiaries, 1,216 (55.07%) reported receiving LED lamps and 2,090 (94.66%) reported receiving energy meters....