Alternate current

‘‘Gujarat does not have any load-shedding in villages, cities or nagarpalikas. We’ve achieved this simply by better management of available power,’’ claims Saurabh Patel, minister of state for energy and petrochemicals and from a prominent Ahmedabad business family himself. Power cuts were frequent in Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar and Vadodara even two years ago, but no longer.

How did Gujarat do it? ‘‘We have tried to achieve maximum power load factor (PLF) by updating repair and maintenance. And also by curtailing power theft,’’ says B.J. Bhatt, vice-president (coordination), Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL).

Power revenue for April 2005 hit Rs 1,009 crore. In financial year 2004-05, Gujarat earned over Rs 10,000 crore, the highest ever.

THE figures sound nice, but not everybody is smiling. Recently, the police had to control protesting farmers in Haripar, near Rajkot, after they obstructed the state government-sponsored Krishi Rath Yatra. Their complaint? Erratic power supply. Poonambhai Melabhai Padiyar looks at the flickering light in his small cottage and puts it bluntly, ‘‘The kisan is going to die soon.’’

Padiyar is sarpanch of Padamla, a small village less than 20 km from Vadodara. The village gets 24 hours uninterrupted power at homes. But the fields are dry. The eight-hour supply to fields barely wets the one acre owned by Padiyar. The 10,000 residents of this village rely on crops like bajra, wheat, tomato, chillies and tobacco.

‘‘We need electricity to pump water into these dry fields. If the Modi government can do that, then all of us will openly applaud it,’’ says Mangalsinh Punjabai Parmar, a local Congress politician.

But the state government seems too busy celebrating to notice. ‘‘The Jyoti Gram Yojana will bring a revolution in the country. We have not just achieved power distribution but also increased local employment in villages,’’ says Patel.

Yet, notwithstanding advertisements that talk of the ‘‘joy of having continuous light’’, the Anand-Kheda region still sees darkness for as long as 16 hours a day.

GUJARAT is certainly not power surplus. Against a demand of 9,692 mw (2003-04), it receives just 7,605 mw from the central grid. But the state government is only too eager to highlight its achievements. Somewhere between the calculated digs at the ‘‘powerless’’ Congress government in Maharashtra and the extravagent rath yatras, lies the story of the farmers.

‘‘The Patels and rich villagers who are traders or businessmen can now avail electricity for 24 hours,’’ says Parmar, ‘‘but the poor farmer will now bear the burden of dry farming lands, along with a doubled electricty bill.’’

No doubt there has been development in rural Gujarat. Electricity at home means more opportunities, better education facilities, even the ‘‘upliftment of village environment’’, as the energy department’s PR handout puts it, ‘‘with entertainment via TV … local/national/international news.’’

There have even been reports of small-scale diamond units moving to villages, because power is available and other costs are lower than in cities such as Surat. Unlike agriculture, industry is being provided glitch-free power.

For the farmer, there is also the question of affordability. ‘‘If the farmers can’t pay the bill … the Board takes away the connection and seizes the meter. Then there will be no jyoti in Jyotigram.’’ Maganbhai Patel, general secretary, Bharatiya Kisan Sangh insists.