CM's backyard still light years away

RANCHI: Patragonda village, behind Kanke Dam, with a population of about 1,200, is barely 3 km away from chief minister Arjun Munda's house. Yet it does not have the basic facilities of electricity and water connection.
The 140-odd houses in this hamlet are still lit by kerosene lamps when darkness sets in. Children study in the light of kerosene oil. Some households use solar lights but they are few and far between."We have been in the dark for as long as we can remember. Strangely, villages in the interiors have electricity," rued Mahaveer Munda, a 78-year-old villager.
After the villagers shot off a series of letters to the Jharkhand State Electricity Board, they responded. But it took them more than five years. JSEB officers visited the hamlet and erected poles and connected wires but even after that there was no electricity, as there were no transformers! Mahaveer said, "Sometime back an NGO came and distributed solar lights among the villagers, but most of them prefer kerosene lamps."
Executive engineer, JSEB, Anil Kumar, said, "We had visited Patragonda and erected poles and wires. However, there was a shortage of transformers and so we could not install them. Now we are getting new supply and in another 15 days we will install them."
Another problem the villagers are facing is lack of water connection. The irony is that this village comes under the jurisdiction of the Ranchi Municipal Corporation and yet gets no water. Prakash Munda, a farmer, said, "Half the city's drinking water needs are met by the waters of this dam. And we get no water. A well is our only source of water. There used to be a hand pump but that, too, is defunct."
Shanta Munda, a housewife, said, "We are forced to drink polluted water and our children often fall ill because of this. This is a village of farmers, labourers and masons. Can they afford water filters?"
Deputy CEO of RMC, Gopalji Tiwari, said, "I will check the files and ensure villagers get water supply at the earliest."
Locals said the Kanke Dam has been constructed on village land acquired by the government. Mahaveer Munda said, "The government paid compensation but somehow, all villagers did not benefit from the deal. Most of them are unlettered. They not only lost their money but also their farmland."
And why just power and water, the village does not even have a communicable road, neither do welfare schemes reach the locals. Ramesh Munda, another villager, said, "There is only a strip of a road which can be used by two-wheelers. We keep hearing of schemes like Indira Awaas Yojna. Not a single dwelling unit has been constructed in this village under this scheme. Is it fair?"
Apparently, there's only one anganwadi centre in the village. All children go this centre in the absence of a government school. "It is high time the government turned its attention to this village," he said.