Villagers’ struggle to get electricity continues in Naushachapada

Around 60 families and 300 people live in Naushachapada.

The struggle to get electricity for residents of tribal hamlet Naushachapada — one of the 27 such settlements in Aarey Milk Colony — continues even after getting a no-objection certificate (NOC) on Monday.

Villagers of Naushacha panda which is a part of Aarey colony living without Electricity in Mumbai. (Satyabrata Tripathy/Hindustan Times)

According to activists, residents and tribal leaders, the funds required to get electricity to every household is around ₹5 lakh.

Around 60 families and 300 people live in Naushachapada.

Prakash Bhoir, tribal leader, said that the overall expenditure, which includes cost of installing meters, cables, wires and so on, would be between ₹8,000- ₹11,000 for each house.

“Almost all of the residents’ monthly income will get invested if they have to incur ₹10,000 for the electricity connection. We are now looking for options such as crowdfunding or corporate investments,” said Cassandra Nazareth, a member from Aarey Conservation Group.

Bhoir said they have approached the tribal development department requesting for funds to lay the connection. However, they said getting an individual connection for each household is not possible.

“We need to check if the collector can fund the electricity supply. According to the provisions, we can only provide for community connections and not individual households,” said an official from the department.

“People are determined that they will get the electricity connection for their homes come what may. They have waited for this day for more than 70 years now. Some of them are even ready to sell their jewellery to get the funds,” said Bhoir.