In a novel initiative the village gets power supply at the doorstep with three electric bulbs being allowed to be used by every household for just Rs. 30 per month
Samanwaya Nanda
Odisha’s Kalahandi Village, the centre of the country’s poverty and deprivation is known for hunger and death reports of the 1990s. Despite its negative publicity, the people of Purunaguma Village in the Thuamul-Rampur Block of the District have scripted a new success story for themselves. With their hard work, they are accessible to an uninterrupted supply of electricity since the last five years, whereas power cuts occur frequently even in each and every developed city of India.
Seventy three odd families have access to power at their doorstep with three electric bulbs being allowed to be used by every household. The power tariff has never gone up even once in the last 60 months. The tariff has remained the same i.e. Rs. 30 per month since the power supply started with an emotional involvement and hard work of all these families.
Electricity in the remote village was just unthinkable a few years back, says Shyam Singh Majhi, a local youth. Few development activists who came to Kalahandi Village realised that since water flows uninterruptedly throughout the year, it can be properly utilised by making a small hydro power unit with minimum use of technology and money. However they said involvement and hard work by each and every family is a must to take forward this mission. A turbine was brought as per the flow of the water and was installed at the appropriate place. The turbine was connected with a power preserving unit and small electric poles were set up to transmit power to each and every family.
All the families of the village contributed one thousand rupees each for the entire infrastructure to be procured. The remaining amount was paid by the workers. The villagers with representatives from each family put brricades all along the path of the water flow to avoid water leakage and to make the fall of the water on the turbine more forceful. Two engineers helped the villagers to set up turbine and associated machinery at the point where water falls from a height.
“No need to suffer without power throughout the year, not even a single day there has been any power disruption” said Karunakar Nayak, a Member of the Electricity Management Committee. He added that the people of Kalahandi , never dreamt of getting power connections at their doorsteps.
While Governments at Delhi and Odisha are struggling to make power to reach each and every village by 2019, the residents of one of the most backward districts of the country are enjoying uninterrupted power
The villagers are aware of the
challenges involved in retaining
uninterrupted power supply. The perennial flow of water must continue. For this to happen, they know that forests must be preserved and
protected. While ensuring renewable energy, the perennial water flow has also given them opportunity to expand their agriculture activity. Only thing they are sure of now is they have to protect their forests
and nature. n
