Propaganda for Rural Electrification and the Reality Behind Modi's Claim

Allow me to lay it bare as to how the facts get buried under the era of publicity and propaganda by the government. Those who do not check with the facts get swayed away by the theatrics of lies. Allow me to probe PM Modi’s claim as regard to rural electrification of 18,452 villages. He was very loud to give credit to his government for taking electricity to 18,452 villages and was appalled at people not having electricity in the 21st century and lay all blame on the Congress government for not fulfilling her promise of “Electricity For All by 2009” in his usual style of ranting and he asked what the government was doing till 2014. The former Power Minister Piyush Goyal was also quick to say, the nation is getting  illuminated all due to Modi. The NASA satellite night picture was used in ad to show illuminated India.

Having worked as a power sector professional for decades I take this opportunity to acquaint you all with the fact as to how much work was done in the field of electrification in the period of previous governments.

In 1960, out of 5.6 lakh villages only 3061 had electricity. 18% villages of India had electricity by the 70s. Power was given to  2/3rd villages by 80s. Speedier electrification was done during the tenure of Mrs Indira Gandhi -- on an average power line reached 20,000 electrified villages a year.

The period 2005 to 2014 of Manmohan Singh government also saw rapid progress in rural electrification. It started off with the electrification of 9819 villages in 2005-06, 28,706 villages next year 2006-07, 12,056 in 2008-09, 18,374 in 2009-10, 18,306 in the year 2010-11.

The Modi government set the target to electrify 18,452 villages in 1000 days, i.e 3 years -- which was not even equal or nearer to the annually achieved electrification figures of rural households in Indira or Manmohan era. Hence the average electrification in 3 years in Modi government has been of about 6150 villages a year. Hope now all of you will understand that rural electrification has been slow in Modi government as compared to previous governments. But Modi patted his own back to have completed the task 18 days ahead of schedule at his Independence Day speech from Red Fort and thereby disowning the contributions of precious governments.

The ground report, as derived from various media sources, of villages of UP and MP has a different story to narrate. There are many who complained that their villages are still denied of electricity; while some disclosed that power has not reached their homes inspite of poles erected, overhead cables laid, electric meters for consumers fixed yet there is no electricity connection. Some of these villagers have yet to see their houses illuminated with electric bulbs. There are some villagers openly saying they have not seen electricity since birth while some say they have been cheated by the government.

So the data on paper does not support the facts as there are thousands of household where electricity has yet to reach. Take for example the state of Uttar Pradesh which is now the political test lab of BJP and Yogi. 1,35,42,000 houses are still denied of electricity. Around 1 crore households of Bihar, Orissa and Jharkhand are still not having electricity.

So my dear friends either accept the facts or satisfy yourselves with the NASA night pictures of illumination displayed in government's publicity ads and posters. If still not satisfied, keep thumping to applaud Modi on his election speeches crafted to entice you to believe that it is only the Modi government which is delivering as nothing was achieved by the Congress in the last 70 years (Oh yes, now they have modified it to 55 years).