TURA, Jan 22: What else can indicate the neglect that some villages have had to endure if not for the fact that an entire village has been without electricity for close to a decade after the transformer in their village developed a snag and no one came forward to help them.
The village in question goes by the name of Kantanangre, about 5 kilometres from the town of Dadenggre, the constituency represented by three-time MLA and minister, James Sangma.
The discovery of the village, forced to live without one of modern day’s basic necessities, happened by chance.
“We went to a small grocery store that also served tea after visiting a few illegal stone quarries in the village of Magalpara. As one of our phones was running out of battery, we asked if we could charge our phone when the shop owner told something that left us in absolute shock. The village last saw electricity in the summer of 2014 – almost a decade ago,” said Peter A Sangma, a resident of Phulbari, under West Garo Hills.
Shocked by the discovery, the civil society members sought an immediate meeting with the villagers and the Nokma of the area, Withison M Marak.
Once Marak came to the grocery store, he lay before the group the entire stream of events that has left the village impossibly hapless since 2014.
“Our transformer went kaput during a thunderstorm in the monsoon of 2014. As we had no other choice, we went to the office of the MeECL, Phulbari to inform them of the situation but were informed that we had pending dues of over Rs 3 lakhs, which was shocking as we only had around 55 households out of which 28 had BPL connections,” said the Nokma.
He added that the office asked them to shell out Rs 1.5 lakh or the transformer would not be repaired and electricity restored.
“Until then most of the village had been paying their electricity bills regularly as bills were provided every 3 months. How the bill shot up to Rs 3 lakh was beyond our understanding. As they did not want to help with the repair, we somehow managed an electrician who helped us repair the transformer and electricity was restored,” stated the Nokma.
What happened next was even more shocking. The MeECL department came to the village and immediately disconnected the transformer and took it with them leaving the village with no way to restore electricity.
“What we don’t understand is why our entire village had to be disconnected from an essential service if only 5-6 households had the major part of the pending bill. The department should have disconnected their lines and forced them to pay but we had to bear the brunt of the department’s highhandedness when most of us actually used the BPL lines which had bills of only Rs 80-100 per month,” stated Withison.
Having no other option, the villagers approached their local representative, James Sangma, in the hope of a solution but would return empty handed and saddened as despite their visit and pleadings, nothing changed. This as per the villagers took place in 2016 after the village had already suffered for two years.
“We just gave up as there was no one willing to help us out with a solution. Most of us are daily wage earners with low incomes. Collecting the money to pay off the bill was beyond us. When others benefitted from the Saubhagya scheme, we were once again left out. Our lives mean nothing to anyone it seems,” informed a villager during the conversation.
The only solution to them was to either get solar or a generator – both of which very few could afford.
For the villagers, life has become a chapter in the dark ages. Currently there are over 90 households in the village with more than 300 voters.
“Our children have been affected as they aren’t able to study during the evenings. Some of the children and residents have laptops but they aren’t able to charge them to use. We have to shut shops early in the village as everything gets dark after sunset. We charge our phones and other essentials through small solar panels just to stay in touch with the world,” added another villager.
A visibly disturbed group of social activists felt that the fate that was forced on the village was wrong.
“If the department had some sense, they would have come forward to work out a solution for these people. How can we call ourselves a modern society when entire villages like these exist amongst us? We will be taking this up with the authorities and hope that they can work out something for these people. This is just thoughtless to say the least,” felt Peter. (Contd on P-4)
Village near Dadenggre without electricity…
(Contd from P-3) When contacted on the issue, FEDCO, the company that took over from the MeECL, stated that they were aware of the village not getting electricity but added that they were never approached by the villagers to work on a solution.
“The villagers should come and approach us on the matter and we can work out a solution to this. The issue is that they have a huge pending bill due to which the transformer from their village was removed. The villagers can approach us and we will try and work out a solution. As a company, we cannot condone non-payment of bills but if approached by them, we can definitely seek a solution,” informed one of the SDOs of FEDCO under Dadenggre division when contacted.
