Waiting for light, a village puts electricity meters in safe
Zamku Devi’s mud hut atop a barren hill in Saroth village of Rajsamand district has a treasured property for the past five years. Locked in a wooden safe lie an electricity meter and a switch board, which had once brought much excitement to the old couple’s lives. Though Zamku Devi, 70, is yet to see any light, the safekeeping of the equipment has become her biggest responsibility.
About a kilometre away, Sanna Devi, 30, ties the electricity meter around her camel’s neck every time she steps out to fetch water or graze the camel. She too has no electricity but is paranoid that should she lose the equipment, she would be fined or worse, never get a power connection again.
Both the women, as per official records, have received power connections. Their meters too read four units each, but their houses are yet to get electricity.
Over 35 households in Saroth village alone have discovered that government records similarly show them as beneficiaries of the much-hyped Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana when their crumbling mud houses have not for a day seen any form of electricity. All the 35 families were given a meter and a switch board each that they prize above many other valuable possessions. Many have even got electricity bills for the unconnected meters.
Zamku Devi had to pay Rs 30 to the official who came to deliver the meter and the switch board, despite BPL connections meant to be free of cost. Pratap Singh, who on paper got
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