Light In The Darkness

the yadav-dominated villagers inclination towards the samajwadi party also helped them get electricity

In 1947,when Independence brightened the hopes and dreams of many an Indian,Ram Dayal was born into darkness. He was born in Chibau Khera,a village which had never seen light,except that of the sun or the lantern. On April 29,2013,this village,which is 20 km off Lucknow,Uttar Pradesh,got power supply for the first time. And Ram Dayal,now a ripe 65-year-old,could finally hear the whirring of a fan and feel its breeze on his face,and see the glow of a low-watt bulb. But no TV set or music system for Dayal,who owns a small piece of land and four buffaloes. For him,electricity means being able to milk his cattle at night and charge his mobile phone. Earlier,hed use a lantern to milk his buffaloes,and charge his phone in nearby villages.

He hasnt thrown away his lantern or hand fan yet. With frequent blackouts in the evening,Dayal continues to light up a lantern,and often sleeps in the open. Bhapp se aaye,jhapp se band ho jaaye. The current comes and goes in a wink, is how he describes the situation of power in his village. But he doesnt care much about it. I have lived without electricity all my life. I do not use it much now either, he says. He still prefers to sleep in the open,and is glad that youngsters of the village will lead a better life than me.

Raghuvir,18,confirms Dayals hope. He is no longer ashamed of belonging to a powerless village and is excited about his classmates and cousins coming over to his home. Earlier,they would be uncomfortable here,because of no electricity, he says. Abhishek,a 20-year-old who commutes daily to his college in Lucknow,can now study for longer hours. Sachin Yadav,another youth,doesnt have to pay Rs 5 any more to leave his phone in another village for 2-3 days for charging. Raju Prajapati,30,has increased his savings. We would spend eight litres of kerosene on our three lanterns every month, he says. Above all,the young men have better prospects of finding a bride,because as Supriya,a mother of two sons of marriageable age,says,Earlier,people wouldnt want to marry their daughters into the village,citing the absence of electricity.

When electricity debuted in Chibau Khera in April,villagers hailed it as Diwali,all year round. But the euphoria has now been dimmed by long blackouts. There is no power in the peak hours between 6 pm and 10 pm,with additional load shedding of two hours during daytime in the villages of Mohanlalganj block. So,like other villages in the block,Chibau Khera has been allotted 18 hours of electricity,but that is largely on paper. Villagers complain that they get only between 10-14 hours of current daily. Rajiv Gangwar,an engineer at the Mohanlalganj sub-station,reasons,Officials assume that villagers dont need so much electricity.

Or,perhaps,they think theyve done them a favour. For,a group of villagers persuaded Samajwadi Party MP from Mohanlalganj constituency Sushila Saroj for close to three years before she finally sanctioned Rs 10.55 lakh from her Local Area Development Fund late last year for supplying electricity to the village. Currently,37 poles are connected to a 100 KVA transformer which was inaugurated by the MP,providing electricity to about 60 houses in the village.

Besides their persistence,the villagers political inclination also influenced the setting up of the transformer. Villagers openly say that had it not been for the Yadav-led Samajwadi Party government,they wouldnt have got electricity. The majority of the 120 families in Chibau Khera are from the OBC communities of Yadavs and Kumhars,and politics fills up most of their conversations. On the day the transformer was inaugurated,an argument ensued among local SP leaders over the positioning of their faces on the hoarding facing the makeshift dais. The residents have had a socialist mindset since the time of Chaudhary Charan Singhs Lok Dal. Most are loyal to SP and some are loyal to BSP. Basically,they are anti-BJP and anti-Congress, says Shamsher Singh Yadav,district general secretary,SP.

In the village,five houses,adjacent to each other,stand out due to their size and lavishness. One of them got its first solar panel a decade ago. The other four followed suit soon. The houses belong to five Yadav brothers and their families,all owing allegiance to the Samajwadi Party.

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Most villagers credit Vijay Kumar Yadav,son of one of the five brothers,for bringing electricity to the village. Sitting at his cousin Amareshs home,he shows the RTI applications he filed and the letters he sent to former UP chief minister Mayawati,the Union power ministry and even to the Prime Ministers Office. The room has an LCD TV and a DTH connection,a far cry from only low-watt bulbs that villagers have fixed in the name of electricity. A few inches above the TV hangs a red calendar with a large picture of Akhilesh Yadav. Vijay Kumar says he has inherited his loyalty to the SP.

On the surface,Vijay says that he pushed for electricity in his village to keep up with the times. The latent,and more important,reason,it seems,was his assertion of superiority in the village. Whenever he approaches a house,people stand or sit up in respect. On being asked what he uses electricity most for,he says,I watch all the news on TV. I like following politics and want to know about the political atmosphere in Lucknow.

Inside the village,Vijay passes by some workers,who are installing ceramic stay insulators in poles. A 30-year-old recently suffered injuries upon coming in contact with live wiring. A survey by officials then revealed that ceramic stay insulators were required in 18 of the 37 poles but it was installed only in two. Maintenance supervisor Mast Ram says that he has also strengthened the base of the poles,which will be put to test in the monsoon. Ab sab dheere dheere hoga, Vijay says. He means it positively,but the joke is not lost on Chibau Khera,or in many other villages,cities and districts of the country.

Nearby,Raja Khera and Sitam Khera villages are still waiting for their Diwali,all year round. n