Ray of hope for adivasi villages around Maharashtra

For decades, a stunning darkness enveloped the adivasi regions just beyond Mumbai. That's slowly changing.

Fifty-five-year-old Maruti Shankar Bangar, a resident of Tungi village in Maharashtra’s Raigad district, tells us how. This nondescript village, about 130 km from Mumbai, got power supply only in January this year. Power came into this village under the Modi government’s rural electrification scheme, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY).

Bangar is hopeful that his children will be able to study at night. Their village can have a proper school or hospital as the teachers and doctors would have no problems here, he added. The only public infrastructure is a primary school with one male teacher.

Huge transformation

Villagers used to go to nearby villages to grind wheat and rice. They plan to buy a grinding machine since they have 24 hours of power supply now.

“We were cut off from the world because of no electricity. Whatever little information I could gather was from my cell-phone. I had to go to Dongarpada, seven kilometres away, to charge it every morning. Now that problem is solved. We have got a television now,” said 20-year-old Amol Supe.

On why it took the village so long to get power supply, 60-year-old Raghunath Talpe, said: “Not a single politician or media has ever visited our village. You are the first to come here.” Talpe showed the big scars on his shoulders. Along with fellow villagers, he worked for 15 days to carry a transformer (weighing 700 kg) and electric poles to the top of the mountain.

BusinessLine visited five villages that got electricity for the first time this year under DDUGJY. One of them is Gharapuri Island or Elephanta Island, a UNESCO world heritage site.

With a project cost of ₹25 crore, the island, which houses three villages, Raj Bander, Mora Bander and Shet Bander, got its first power supply in February this year from the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co Ltd (MSEDCL) through a 7.5-km long undersea cable. Locals credit activists such as Rajendra Padte, who have been fighting for electricity for the last 26 years.

About an hour’s ferry ride from mainland Mumbai, this island receives about 2,500 domestic and international tourists everyday. However, the 1,200-odd locals remained deprived of electricity for about 70 years.

The Maharashtra Tourism Department has donated two or three generators to help businesses.

However, the island got only three hours of electricity through them. Besides, running those were expensive and environmentally harmful, said Rajendra Padte’s nephew Siddhant Padte, who runs a restaurant. “We can now have overnight-stay facilities and also draw drinking water from the dam and fresh water wells,” Padte said.

Sandip Patil, who runs a souvenir shop there, said his business ran completely on cash, even though tourists often wished to pay by card. Patil plans to set up a POS machine in his shop. “Banks can consider setting up an ATM machine in the island. This will increase our business. Basic infrastructure will improve,” Patil told us.

Another village, called Jambhulpada, 60 km from Mumbai, has about 20 houses. “Wild cats have killed cattle, lamb and poultry. We do not have toilets and venturing out in the dark is risky,” said Kunda Sawar, a 50-year-old woman. While villagers blame the lackadaisical attitude of earlier governments, they praise the efforts of individual activists.

Indifferent bureaucracy

For Tungi village, a local activist Dinesh Bhoir spent about ₹4 lakh from his personal savings for the documentation process. It took him nearly two-and-a-half years to collect documents, process them and submit to the electricity department.

“There were many issues starting from convincing the state electricity department to arranging documents such as land papers for every household or their identification papers. Officers would keep me waiting for days. Local politicians did not help,” Bhoir said, adding Tungi was stuck in a tug-of-war between the electricity and forest departments.

For Jambhulpada and Devkundi (15 km away), a 31-year-old local activist Sushil Patil ran a massive campaign “Aami Labharte Andrache” meaning “we love darkness”.

“Jambhulpada, is right on the highway, and was still deprived of power supply. You can Imagine the plight of people in remote areas. We are sure there are at least 20-odd villages in Palghar district which are yet to be electrified,” Patil said. The state’s tribal minister is from Palghar, he observed.

“They have told us to stop worrying about these villages as they drag the department’s profits. They (electricity department) are acting as a private corporate which is only bothered about profit and loss,” Patil said.

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