After 57 years of Independence, the question of availability of power to aam aadmi remains a big question. In India, only ten states have achieved the mark of full village electrification whereas seven states have touched the milestone of 95 per cent village electrification. Six states have achieved more than 75 per cent but less than 95 per cent of village electrification. However, the real problem lies with Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya as they contain the maximum backlog of unelectrified villages in the country. In UP, out of the 97,122 inhabited villages, so far 57,042 are electrified whereas remaining 42,080 villages are engulfed in dark. In Bihar, out of the 38,475 villages, 19,251 are electrified and 19,224 villages are off the loop. The number of electrified villages in Jharkhand is 7,641 out of a total of 29,336 with a backlog of 21,695 villages awaiting electricity. In Arunachal Pradesh, out of a total of 3,649 villages, 2,335 possess power and 1,314 are in the queue for electricity. In Meghalaya, out of the 5,484 villages, 3,016 are electrified and 2,468 villages are in the dark. In short, 1,12,401 unelectrified villages in the country are located in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal and Assam.
