After decades of darkness, Droupadi Murmu’s village to finally get electricity
The Uparbeda village in Kusumi block, with a population of 3,500, has two hamlets Badasahi and Dungursahi. While Badasahi hamlet is fully electrified, Dungursahi has only 14 households which are yet to get electricity.
The Odisha government has begun electrifying Odisha’s Uparbeda district, the native village of Droupadi Murmu, presidential candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, after reports on the plight of villagers living in the darkness for decades came to light.
Murmu had shifted to Rairangpur, a municipal town around 20km away from her village, several years ago.
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A day ago, officials and workers of the Tata Power North Odisha Distribution Limited (TPNODL) reached Uparbeda with 38 electric poles and 900 meter cables, conductors, and transformers in a truck and earth digging machines to ensure the supply of electricity in parts of the village that is yet to come out of darkness.
“We have issued an order to the Mayurbhanj section of the company to complete electrification work and ensure power supply to the entire Uparbeda village within 24 hours,” a senior official of the TPNODL told PTI.
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Uparbeda village with a population of 3,500 has two hamlets. The Badasahi hamlet is fully electrified, while Dungursahi has only 14 households which are yet to get electricity. Murmu’s nephew Biranchi Narayan Tudu lives at Dungursahi hamlet along with his wife and two children. His wife said, “We had requested many people to provide electricity to our Dungursahi hamlet. However, no one paid any heed."
She said that they have not brought the matter to the notice of Murmu though she visits the village during festivals. The matter was informed to the local MLA and MP during election time in 2019, but nothing had happened, said Chittaranjan Baske, another resident of Uparbeda village. People still use kerosene lamps to illuminate their houses, he added.
An official said that Dungursahi was not electrified as the houses in the hamlet were constructed on forest land. “We have no intention to keep the villagers in the dark, but it was so due to lack of certain official clearances,” the official said.
(With agency inputs)
