Around 6,000 ft above sea level, farmers of over 30 villages of Chandra Valley are scripting a new story of empowerment.Eight hundred and fifty of them have become shareholders of the Chandra Valley Hydro Power Project Cooperative Society Ltd, which is going to set up three micro hydel projects in the Lahaul-Spiti area of Himachal Pradesh, becoming perhaps the first such tribal initiative in the country. Realising that big companies might milk the hydel-power potential of the region, the villagers are taking the cooperative way to power themselves. Their eye is on the new hydro policy announced by the state Government, which promises to buy power from cooperatives for a period of 40 years. The enthusiasm that drives the initiative is clear from the example of 60-year-old Phuntsog, a poor ironsmith from Jagdang village of the Lahaul sub-division. He thought he would be left out of the project as each member was required to shell out Rs 1,000 as fee, besides promising to mortgage one bigha of land each to raise the funds required for the project. But when the other 849 members realised that Phuntsog would be the only one left out of the cooperative, they contributed Rs 12 each on his behalf and waived off the mortgage condition. Jagdish Kumar, headman of Sissu village, describes Phuntsog’s inclusion as a true measure of the cooperative movement’s success in the Lahaul-Spiti valley.Balbir Singh Yarki, Block Development Officer at Kullu and a native of Lahaul valley, is credited with encouraging villagers to set up cooperatives to run micro hydro power projects. Though the initial response was tepid, Yarki’s exhortations worked and today the Chandra society is the second largest cooperative after the Lahaul Potato Growers Society, with members from villages right from Khoksar to Dalang. While the Shansha Hydro Power Project Cooperative Society Ltd, which has 140 members, is also on its way, the Lahaul Potato Growers’ Society may reportedly be the next to tap power.Both Chandra and Shansha cooperatives have identified three sites each for setting up power projects, with capacities ranging from 400 KW to 5 MW. Lal Chand Katoch, Chairman of the Chandra Valley Hydro Power Project Society Limited, is all smiles as he tells you how Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh himself inaugurated the office of the society at Sissu on July 5. “Raja Sahib appreciated our efforts and asked others to form societies to exploit the opportunities available in the field of power generation,” says Katoch. The Chandra society, which has collected Rs 30 lakh and plans to rake in Rs 70 lakh more by mortgaging land, has now engaged a private engineering firm from Shimla to prepare a detailed project report. A pre-feasibility report has already been submitted to the state Government. Yarki says the state Government policy of purchasing power for the next 40 years will not only tackle the problem of marketing but also ensure regular income to the members.Calling it an excellent step, Lahaul-Spiti Deputy Commissioner A S Rathore told The Indian Express that the glaciers in the area coupled with rivulets made the district a haven for micro hydel projects. “More villages should emulate their example,” he says. At 2 persons per sq km, the Lahaul-Spiti district has India ‘s lowest population density. Its population is around 32,000 while the total geographical area is 12,210 sq km.
