Electrified without Electricity

Tingsong village located in Senapati District, Manipur is 45 kilometre away from National Highway-2. According to the 2011 Census, the village has 246 households with a population of 1,377 persons. The following is a case of blatant corruption in rural electrifications programmes, and was learnt from interactions with members of Tingsong village on 24 September 2014, after which I personally visited the village.

The village headman and his team managed to get electricity poles in order to get their village electrified after running from pillar to post for five years. With community labour, an appropriate path was laid out for the electricity lines amidst terrain with ravines. The community erected all electricity poles en route to their village with the hope that it will finally get electricity. Strangely enough, the electricity wire for distribution lines were not given even after electricity poles were erected. Consequently, many electric poles either got rusted or damaged. After following up, the headman and his team came to learn that electricity wires meant for their village were already sold in the black market by a section officer of the concerned department. Tingsong village was officially recorded as an electrified village much before it even got electricity wires for the distribution line.