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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Darkness right under Nitish’s nose: Village that has never seen power-Anand Raj

Darkness right under Nitish’s nose: Village that has never seen power-Anand Raj

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published Published on Apr 28, 2013   modified Modified on Apr 28, 2013
-The Telegraph


YOGAPUR (Patna): Chief minister Nitish Kumar wants "light" in every household but there is darkness right under his nose.

Barely 30km off Patna, Yogapur's inhabitants - mostly Mahadalits, Dalits and backward classes whom Nitish has tried his best to empower - have never seen power (electricity) in their village.

The chief minister has vowed not to seek votes in the 2015 elections if his power dream tripped. But, it seems, there is nobody to implement his promise in this village.

"I don't think my village would ever see electricity. Nitish makes practical announcements but his officials turn a deaf ear to his directives," Uday Kumar, a member of the Lakhanpar Panchayat Samiti under Punpun block, told The Telegraph.

Kumar has reasons to feel betrayed. He has had a frustrating experience trying to bring power to the village for three years now.

"The village is under Phulwarisharif Assembly constituency represented by Shyam Rajak, a minister in the Nitish-led NDA government. We gave petitions to him, probably in May-June 2011, when he was holding a gram sabha here. The minister asked the energy department officials to look into the matter but nothing happened. Officials did not pay heed to our applications," Kumar said.

Asked if the village had ever seen electricity, he said: "In my 34 years I have never seen electricity here. I have heard that one Kapildeo Singh, a landlord, had got a transformer installed to get his land irrigated. But even that is a three-decade-old story."

Suresh Prasad Yadav, another villager, feels nothing is impossible if the government is keen. "Wajitpur village got everything - roads, electricity and pond- after the President of Mauritius, who has his roots here, visited it. If the chief minister really wants electrification here, it would be done. But, given the attitude of officials, it seems the chief minister's promise would prove to be a hollow one. The villagers don't use any electrical appliance, except a few who own cellphones. A handful of us have purchased a solar charger for Rs 1,600 to charge the cellphone batteries. The charger also illuminates a bulb or two for about two hours in the evening."

Akhilesh Kumar Singh of neighbouring Pakauli village, too, was sceptical. "We don't have any hope. If he (chief minister) could not provide power in seven-and-a-half years to a village right under his nose, how will he manage to get all villages electrified in the next two-and-a-half years?"

Singh's village has been without power for the past three months after some poles got uprooted during the construction of a road.

He feels rampant corruption and unwarranted bureaucratic control would scuttle the chief minister's power dream.

Of the 41,000 villages in the state, just 18,925 have electricity now. The 22,484 villages and hamlets without power include those that got de-electrified.

Asked if it was possible for the government to get 22,484 villages or hamlets electrified by 2015, state energy minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav told The Telegraph: "We will be able to meet 80 to 90 per cent of the rural electrification target by end of 2015 because most of the unelectrified villages are actually small hamlets. Second, the Centre has extended the benefits of Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana even in the Twelfth Five Year Plan."

According to the Central Electricity Authority, Bihar's projected peak power demand by end of 2015 would be around 4,000MW against the current 3,000MW. The Nitish government hopes to get 3,600MW by the end of 2015 through internal generation, its share in the central sector and purchase from private players.

The government signed an MoU with Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd last December to strengthen the state's transmission system.

In a bid to bring professionalism and ensure better services, the energy department issued a notification bifurcating the then Bihar State Electricity Board into five new companies last November.

The move would enable the companies to seek loans or financial assistance from World Bank and other foreign agencies to carry out their work independently. The state government has also invited bids from eligible bidders to hand over the responsibility of power distribution of Patna, Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur and Gaya to private hands.


The Telegraph, 28 April, 2013, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130428/jsp/bihar/story_16834284.jsp#.UXz6yErcing


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