New Delhi, May 8: The Raj Bhavan in Calcutta could plunge into perpetual darkness if governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi chooses to express his empathy not just with the denizens of the state capital but also with the vast rural populace of Bengal.

For, figures available with the Centre reveal that Bengal has among the lowest rates of rural household electrification in India despite being a net “exporter” of power in recent years.

Following the new definition of electrification after the launch of the Bharat Nirman programme in 2005, only 20.3 per cent of a total of 1.1 crore rural households in the state had electricity against the national average of 43.5 per cent. Only four states — Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh — have lower levels than Bengal.

What makes Bengal’s poor record particularly glaring, sources said, is that it has sufficient power availability and also an allocation of 921MW from the central quota.

“However, instead of providing electricity to its own people, the state has preferred to export power to other states,” a senior official, who did not wish to be identified, said.

In contrast, the other states at the bottom of the heap — Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Jharkhand — face acute power shortage. They are in no position to sell or “export” and remain net “importers” of power.

On the face of it, the Left Front government’s claim of doing well in the power sector and using it as a key incentive to attract private investment to the state is borne out by its “export” record over the last two years.

Other states, too, both sell and buy power at different points during the year. But the West Bengal State Electricity Board (or the renamed West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company) has been consistently selling much more than it buys from other states.

In the year 2006-07, for instance, Bengal showed a monthly surplus ranging from 33 million units in August 2006 to a maximum of 382 million units in December that year. Its total surplus (export-import) that year stood at over 2,000 million units.

In 2007-08, Bengal was once again a net exporter for 10 of the 12 months in the year. In April 2007, it showed a small net import of less than 2 million units and in July, about 15 million units. For the rest of the year, it again sold more power than it imported with the annual figure amounting to around 1,143 million units.

But a closer scrutiny of the state’s overall power situation showed that one reason it could sell power to other states was the dismal progress in rural household electrification.

Under the new definition, it is no longer enough to just put up an electricity pole in a village to claim it is electrified. Electrification norms require that at least 10 per cent of households in the village should have electricity; all public places such as schools, anganwadis and panchayat offices should be electrified, and the sarpanch of the village should issue a certificate saying that the village has been electrified in line with these new norms.

Given the state’s poor record, it was placed under the “focus category” by the Centre under the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) launched in April 2005 to complete rural electrification across the country. The project was initiated in 13 districts of the state, which after completion will ensure electrification of 4,283 un-electrified villages and provide electricity connections to 1.46 lakh rural households, including free electricity connections to 97,847 BPL households.

The progress, according to officials monitoring the state, has been “slow” — so far, only 3,184 villages have been electrified and connections provided to 95,493 households, which includes free connections to 59,219 BPL households.

The RGGVY will be extended to the remaining districts under the Eleventh Five-Year Plan but even if the state meets the target, a huge number of households will remain without power for some time to come, sources said.

For instance, if the state manages to meet the target of providing electricity to 1.46 lakh rural homes under the first phase of the RGGVY, the total figure will go up to around 24.6 lakh of electrified households. That will still mean that about 85 lakh of the total 110 lakh (1.1 crore) rural households will live in darkness.

Although these figures are in the public domain, political parties, including the Congress, have seldom made use of them. But with the Left constantly attacking the UPA government for its “anti-people” policies, several central ministries have been quietly scrutinising Bengal’s own record in heath, education, PDS offtake and NREGA implementation. Now rural electrification, too, has joined the list.