[Assam] Rural electrification -AT news

[Ram Sarangapani]

This from the AT. Is this a surprise? - a surprise not because the AT
reported it :), but because of the continual poor showing in these national
stats.
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Asom among worst performers
By A Staff Reporter
 GUWAHATI, Oct 25 – The prolonged power crisis in Asom has hit the rural
areas of the State the hardest. Prolonged power cuts, which stretch on for
hours or days, have dealt a body blow to economic activities in the rural
sector, particularly agriculture and small-scale industries. Rural
electrification schemes have gone for a spin.

Sources said that Asom is now among the worst performing States as far as
rural electrification is concerned. According to data maintained by the
Central Electricity Authority (CEA), as on August 31, 2006, just 15657
villages out of 25124 villages in the State had been electrified. Thus, a
mere 62.3 per cent of villages in the State have the good fortune of seeing
a burning bulb, that is when there is power available.

Compared to major States in India, Asom is way behind in bringing
electricity to its villages, a must if it is to ensure progress. Compared to
all States outside the North East, Assam is ahead of only Bihar (52.8),
Jharkhand (33.5), Uttar Pradesh (58.2) and Orissa (55.2) as far as
performance on the rural electricity front is concerned. Even within the
North East, Asom is way behind Sikkim (94.4), Mizoram (80.6), Manipur (83.4)
and Nagaland (67.4). Only Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Tripura are
equally bad or worst in rural electrification.

According to the sources, no data is available on rural electrification
since March 2006. It would not be wrong to presume that nothing has been
done since then. It is not unexpected, given the state of affairs in the
Assam State Electricity Board (ASEB), which is struggling to come up with
one excuse after the other for its failure to provide steady electricity to
its lakhs of consumers. When the existing consumers are not getting power,
it is a pipedream for the rural folk to expect electricity to come to their
homesteads. Assam has a 90 per cent backlog in rural electrification under
the Bharat Nirman programme, the sources said. The Bharat Nirman programme
aims to provide all villages in the country with electricity, metalled
roads, drinking water and telephone lines by 2009.

The sources further repudiated State Power Minister Pradyut Bordoloi's claim
that the present power crisis is because of the State's over-dependence on
hydropower. They said that the minister is trying to suppress the fact that
it is the inefficiency of the State power sector that is to blame for the
crisis. They cited CEA data to press home the fact that 595.19 MW of the
total installed capacity of 597.3 MW in the State sector, is actually
thermal based, using coal, gas and diesel. "If the State power sector had
run to its capacity, there would not have been too much dependence on the
Central sector hydropower units," they pointed out.
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