Ranchi, April 18: The state government’s plans to showcase achievements in its rural electrification project during Prime Minister’s visit on Tuesday runs the risk of a damp squib. For, a paucity of outdoor broadcasting (OB) vans threatens plans of live coverage.

The state government is trying its best to ensure that during Manmohan Singh’s online inauguration of rural electrification projects in Bokaro, he is able to see live images from the 10 “lit up” villages.

“But we are not sure the online inauguration of all the 10 shortlisted villages would be possible. As of now, the state can arrange only two OB vans. We are making arrangements for more vans,” said a senior official of the Jharkhand State Electricity Board (JSEB).

The Prime Minister would inaugurate the Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojana in Bokaro after laying the foundation stone for Bokaro Steel Plant’s expansion plans, said energy secretary Aditya Swaroop. The venue for both the programmes would be the same, he added.

The government needs 10 OB vans — one each in the villages concerned. The idea is to broadcast live the proceedings in the villages to Bokaro as Singh lights up each rural hub.

The authorities did not reveal the names of the villages. They seem to be working on an excuse to explain the impending problem. “We might opt to show two to three villages for the online inauguration. This would be symbolic and enough to send the message of success across,” said an official.

The government has one OB van but that is not functional due to the lack of a particular bandwidth from V-SAT. The van is with the information technology department.

But considering the poor achievement in achieving the yearly target of Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojana, the online inauguration programme could hold no importance to villagers who put up with constant power cuts.

Out of the total 19,000 villages to be electrified by 2009 under the Centre’s ambitions scheme, about 1,500 have got electricity connection.

The Damodar Valley Corporation and the National Thermal Power Corporation are executing the scheme in eight districts each, while the JSEB is taking care of six districts.

The state government is aiming at providing electricity to “each and every household by 2012”, said JSEB’s chief engineer (rural electrification) C.D. Kumar.

But former president of Jharkhand Chamber of Commerce and Industries Arjun Prasad Jalan isn’t impressed with the scheme.

“Forget about electricity supply in rural areas, even urban centres face acute power shortage. The power situation is bad in the state but the authorities do not appear to agree,” said Jalan.