Garhwa: The region, including 'Garhwa' faces a terrible power reliability situation. Rural electrification by itself means little when load shedding and power outages are frequent enough to make the term a mere technicality. The lack of reliability often discourages households from adopting electricity, which disincentivises discoms, thus undermining investment in rural electrification. This makes power supply even more unreliable, perpetuating a vicious cycle.
File Photo; Ajay Upadhayay
An activist, Ajay Upadhayay - who is often quoted for his outspokenness for electricity in the region and Garhwa in particular, had worked alot for streamlining the electricity in rural areas of the district. It is said that a particular areas of the district was barred from the electricity for more than decades, have been receiving a little electricity on account of Ajay Upadhayay's efforts. The electrification of that region has happened between 2000 to 2005. Slamming the administration over power crisis, he blamed the government too for the electricity crisis in the as it had ruled the state for maximum years, but “failed” to produce even a unit in state.
Speaking to 'The Garhwa Post', Ajay Upadhayay alleges that electricity is being supplied selectively in the district. A large number of people are not receiving, while a selection of people and institution are getting is uninterrupted quoting Dental College Garhwa, which is getting electricity from three sides. He added. The district administration and electricity department have itself assured them electricity, however, citizens are deprived from it, and nearly one-fifth of its rural households still remain in acute darkness. The government is committed to reaching these households through the Saubhagya scheme by 31 December 2018—a deadline that has been moved up from 31 March 2019, but nothing has moved from there.
It has been a long time coming. The Modi government has announced already about the electrification of all inhabited census villages. A village is considered electrified if it possesses basic electrical infrastructure and 10% of its homes have access to power. Little wonder that basic economic logic militates against rural households in areas with poor power reliability adopting grid electricity.
They have to pay a monthly fixed minimum charge irrespective of brownouts and blackouts. Meanwhile, poor reliability forces them to also use traditional fuels, like kerosene and fuel wood, for lighting and cooking purposes. In effect, these households end up paying for two power sources. Unsurprisingly, this affects rural households' decision making when it comes to electricity adoption. He added further.
Further problems that we are facing that students have not been able to study due to lack of electricity – even during the 21st century they have to be dependent on kirosen light, which severely affecting to the society as whole.
Electrification schemes like the previous Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY), and the ongoing Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) and Saubhagya schemes have focused on establishing village electricity infrastructure. DDUGJY, for example, provided electricity access to the remaining over 18,000 inhabited villages. There are issues with these schemes, certainly—confusion over data regarding the number of households in the country and inconsistencies in the data put out by state electricity discoms. The largest issue, however, might be the lack of focus on supply-side barriers.
