A little over a week ago, Ghaziabad was declared as the first district in Uttar Pradesh to have achieved 100 per cent household electrification.
This claim is validated by residents of Kanauja village in Ghaziabad, some of whom, like Poonam Tyagi, saw power at home for the first time. With two buffaloes tied in front of her modest home, Poonam is ecstatic about power supply. She said, “The connections were given for free. Someone came and installed the connection around two months back. We haven’t got a bill yet.”
The 2 kW Saubhagya GPS metered connection at Poonam’s home powers the three LED bulbs she got with the Saubhagya kit. The kit also allows her to charge cell phones with the three-pin plug socket she has received.
Deeper into Kanauja, Rishi Pal’s house too is one of the 30 Saubhagya beneficiary homes in this village. “We run one fan and two bulbs in addition to charging our phones,” Pal said.
Pal has received a bill of ₹623 for power consumed from January 27 to March 13. The bill also reflects the ₹50 a month installation charge. Neighbouring Kushaliya is a similarly sized village, with some 1,000 households and around 6,000 villagers. Here, Afsana, in her early 50s, lauds the ease with which she got a Saubhagya connection. “Our property was divided and we had to get a new connection for this portion. We run two fans, one fridge and three bulbs with the power supply. The new connection was installed two or three months ago without any hassle,” she said.
Her husband Shabbir said, “The earlier bill was close to ₹700 per month for the undivided house. We are yet to get a bill or receipt for the new connections.”
An official said. “The meters installed need to be verified for their accuracy at multiple levels after physical verification by the Paschimanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited. This could be the reason for some delay in billing.”
Satish Kumar in Kanauja runs two fans, one TV and four bulbs through an earlier connection (not Saubhagya). He said, “I had paid an electricity bill of ₹19,000 some time back. There is a meter outside my house now but there has been no bill for the past 6-7 months. This is worrisome.”
“There are many houses where the meters are installed outside and connected to the source of supply, but they are not connected to the supplies inside the home. The meter doesn’t read any power supply information,” an official stated. “The bills for these connections continue to be based on a presumptive consumption pattern,” he added.