Elections pass, rural electrification remains unfulfilled in Ranchi

As assembly elections are on in Jharkhand with the second phase scheduled for tomorrow, villagers across the state have regretted that their ordeal of life without electricity has not undergone a change.

For Syamlal Sinha, who lives in Dhanbad's Lalgi Tola which has no electricity, the election is just an exercise in making empty promises.

''We are fed up with hollow promises by politicians in the last 20 years. Once elections are over, we continue to spend our evenings in darkness and forget about our plight,'' Sinha said.

He said electric poles could be seen at Bodia village in Kanke block in Ranchi district, but sadly no electricity passed through them. The same fate is shared by Savitri Devi of the area.

Successive governments in Jharkhand, led by Babulal Marandi, Arjun Munda, Madhu Koda and Shibu Soren, were pulled up by the Comptoller and Auditor General of India in its reports for failing to supply power, especially to villages.

In one such report (2008), the CAG says, ''Due to inability of state power utilities to systematically fund essential projects/schemes...developmental activities in the power sector had not taken place in an organised and comprehensive manner, resulting in shortages, poor quality of supply and frequent interruptions.'' 

However, S N Choudhary, member (distribution) of the Jharkhand State Electricity Board, told PTI in Ranchi, "The time frame by which a total of 19,737 villages are to be electrified under the Rajiv Gandhi Rural Electrification programme is March, 2010.''

So far, he said, electrification work had been finished in 8000 villages. The NTPC and DVC had been engaged in the task at villages under the Santhal Parganas region comprising seven districts, he explained. The work is also on in the villages of  Lohardaga, Khunti, Simdega, Ranchi and Gumla districts, he said.

The head of Jharkhand Andolankari Morcha, Vinod Kumar, said, ''Over 50% of 32,000 villages in Jharkhand don't have electricity, a sector which is one of the driving forces to develop a state,''

In 2002 the government had promised to electrify 25,000 villages by 2007 in the state's coal belt where 40% of the country's coal reserves are located. Dhanbad's Tundi block alone has 71 villages which have no electricity.

''Baghmara and Topchanchi blocks in Dhanbad are still deprived of electricity,'' a retired engineer, CK Singh, said adding Dhanbad, a district endowed with coal reserves  has the potential to generate low-cost power, particularly if power plants could be set up in the vicinity of coal mines.