State Minister for Power and Non-Conventional Energy Sources Mrinal Banerjee on Tuesday told the state Assembly and urged the legislators to be more vocal in convincing the Centre to al lot funds for all the 18 districts, excluding Kolkata.

Banerjee was replying to a to an attention called by the eight MLAs on March 18.

The yojana was announced on April 1, 2005 with a target of providing electricity to all villages by 2007 (first phase) and to all households by 2012 (second phase).

The Centre was to provide 90 per cent of the expenditure. In the first phase, 98.7 per cent of mouzas have been reached. The state, however, has still not re ceived Rs 60 crore from the Centre, the amount incurred in implementation of the first phase of the scheme, said Banerjee.

For the second phase of the yojana, Rs 16,000 crore has been allocated for the entire country in the 11th Five Year Plan. But according to the Union energy ministry, an amount of Rs 40,000 crore is required for the purpose.