The anxiety churning in 19-year-old Mohan Kumar Ram, a dalit student of B.Sc. first year, over the acutely dismal electricity scenario in Saran district is more refined than in Mohammad Roushan, 45, who runs a small tent-house business. But they all feel the Rajiv Gandhi Rural Electrification Scheme (RGRES) has drastically failed to deliver in power-starved Bihar.
Ram, who lost his father to reactions of medicine 10 years ago and lives with his mother in the grimy hamlet of Yadavpur, finds it hard to afford two incandescent light bulbs at the rate of `3 for four hours each evening. “I study in the light of a kerosene lamp after 10 PM, when the man selling electricity to our village from his generator stops supply. Kerosene availability through PDS at `15 per litre is too erratic, and we buy from the black market at `40 per litre,” says Ram.
Although Ram’s village and many nearby villages inhabited by mostly BPL families have only the electricity poles and no power supply for the past several years, the Rajiv Gandhi Rural Electrification Scheme website lists Saran district as one where 100 per cent work on rural electrification has been achieved and 98.1 per cent (38,872 out of 39,644) of BPL households have received the facility.
But a social audit by the global NGO Greenpeace in the district found 78 per cent of the families living in darkness and 87 per cent complaining of erratic supply and dismal quality of power.
Beside a narrow, dry stream in Bariarpur village called Sukhmahi, which flows from the Gandak and carries water for about half the year, some 300 villagers gathered on Monday to attend a public hearing on the RGRES organised by Greenpeace and demanded that local renewable energy be included in RGRES.
The turnout of 300 villagers was significant, considering the summer heat and the ongoing feverish campaigns for the panchayat polls due here on May 9, in which some candidates had symbols like a light bulb, a ceiling fan and a solar power pole.
To many villagers, this was almost a jeering metaphor for the darkness brought about by politics both local and national.
“Awareness levels about RGRES have been so low that 93 per cent of the people surveyed did not know who to approach if they are not getting electricity,” said Jitendra Kumar, secretary of the NGO Nav Jagriti, which collaborated with Greenpeace for the audit.
“With neither the Bihar government nor the Centre bothering to act, there have been numerous incidents of wire thefts, burnt transformers and people repairing transformers on their own,” he added.