Spreading wings

Patna, Oct. 11: For the residents of Sitab Diara, the birthplace of Jaya Prakash Narayan, BJP patriarch L.K. Advani’s Jan Chetna Yatra was indeed “enlightening”.

The residents, for the first time, witnessed the power of electricity on the occasion of JP’s 110th birth anniversary, which was also marked by Advani’s people’s awareness journey that started from this small hamlet.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar today inaugurated the electrification work at the village. He was in Sitab Diara for Advani’s yatra. Advani started his nationwide yatra from JP’s village to campaign against corruption, which was flagged off by Nitish from Chhapra.

Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB) had to take the help of Jaya Prakash Nagar 33/11KV power sub-station that falls in Balia district of UP — that belonged to Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd, Lucknow — to supply power to the village, which was covered with water from three sides, board spokesman H.R. Pandey said.

“The decision to route power supply to Sitab Diara from UP was taken keeping in view the practical problems coming in the way of power supply from Manjhi sub-station besides carrying out maintenance work of the supply lines and getting the 11,000 volt line across the river Ghaghra,” Pandey added.

The board had taken the initiative to electrify the village in 1982-83 but all the work carried out under rural electrification scheme was damaged by the floodwaters, the board official said, adding that the chief minister gave a fresh directive to carry out the electrification work in JP’s village. To ensure smooth power supply, the board has constructed three distribution centres besides setting up low-tension lines and 11KV lines, he said.

A special camp was organised to make consumers aware, Pandey said, adding that the board has received 231 applications for seeking new connections. Besides this, government buildings, community buildings, PHED have been electrified too.

The board also appointed the gram panchayat as its franchisee for distribution of power in the village. An agreement was signed between panchayat representative Bacha Sah and board’s superintending engineer SSP Srivastava.

Panchayati raj institutions, NGOs, electricity consumer associations, women’s self-help groups, individual entrepreneurs and registered companies, which were actively involved in any social uplift programme in the last three years, can be appointed as franchisee in the area.

The job of the franchisee and the gram panchayat would be to distribute bills, read meters, collect revenue, maintain low-tension lines and attend to fuse-off calls in the rural areas so that all the connections could be billed and the revenue collected could be timely deposited at the board’s office or its account or at a designated bank for the purpose within a specified time frame on a regular basis.

The board would give eight to 10 per cent as commission to the franchisee on its collection amount, Pandey said, adding that the board would also provide training to the panchayat members, besides providing them with necessary equipment for starting the work.