WKH border villages still in dark

NONGSTOIN: A few border villages in West Khasi Hills are yet to get electricity despite MeECL’s promise to light them up by 2016.
Last year, Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited under the Centre’s Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojna (DDUGJY), had promised to meet its target of electrifying Kyrshai and other adjoining villages by 2016 but nothing has been done till date.
Rapstar Marngar, Sordar of Kyrshai, told reporters that in 2013, MeECL staff came to the village to install a transformer and electricity meter.
“People were happy. But electricity was available only for a week and for four years now they did not have any electricity,” he said.
Marngar said the villagers had refused the Assam Government’s proposal to provide electricity many times. “But sometimes the villagers’ patience runs out and they become angry and desperate as it seems that they belong to neither Assam nor Meghalaya,” Marngar added.
MeECL did not follow up the locals’ complaints on two occasions. “But we cannot meet MeECL officials all the time because it takes eight hours to travel to Nongstoin,” said an aggrieved villager.
The FKJGP West Khasi Hills members visited the border villages on Saturday.