Pottangi: The tall claims by the Centre of having supplied electricity to all villages in the country have been exposed in the tribal village of Kauguntha in this block of Koraput district.
Many rural electrification schemes like the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY), Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana –Saubhagya and Biju Gram Jyoti Yojana (BGJY) have been launched by both the state and the Centre, but the villagers here are raising questions about the implementation of these schemes at the grassroots level.
The villagers said no electricity department official have listened to their problems even though they had raised the electricity connection issue with them several times.
Around 20 families stay in Kauguntha. Some people here have also been given electricity connections under BGJY, but they are not getting power supply for a month as the transformer broke down, said villagers Tamal Simadri, Dipal Srinu, Gemel Lachhana, Tamal Samulu, Dipal Jamana, Gemel Sitani, Tamal Apanna and Dopal Chinna.
The villagers said they had alerted the junior engineer regarding this, but he had ignored their complaints.
Similarly, the mismanagement in the electricity department has crossed all limits with Gemel Lachhana’s father Baladhadra getting a bill of Rs 7,284, even though his house has no power connection.
Among the 22 power consumers here, 18 are getting bills. When asked about this, Jitendra Samal, an employee of the electricity department, said he doesn’t know anything and that the junior engineer (JE) is in charge.
SDO Sangarm Patnaik said no report had been filed by the JE regarding power supply problems in the village.
The JE post in Pottangi has been lying vacant for a long time as it is on the Andhra-Odisha border. The engineer of Semiliguda block has been given additional charge of the block. However, the problem in Kauguntha can’t be sorted out as the in-charge engineer has a lot of other work to do, it was learnt.
PNN