Residents display defunct radio sets at Bakhri in East Champaran. Picture by Ajit Kumar Verma

Radio sets gifted to Mahadalit families in East Champaran district about a year ago by former chief minister Nitish Kumar have conked out.

Most of the devices have stopped working owing to some or the other technical snags. Around 67,881 families living in 39 blocks of the district were given the devices under the Mukhya Mantri Mahadalit Radio Yojana. Like other schemes, this too was introduced by Bihar Mahadalit Vikas Nigam in 2011-12, while the radio sets were distributed till mid-2013.

According to figures made available by district welfare office, of total sets, 50,134 devices were of Philips, while the remaining ones were manufactured by Santosh.

To make matters worse, the sets have conked out at a time when most of the Mahadalits are yearning to listen to the speeches of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and especially his clear-cut stand to go on the offensive against Pakistan’s ceasefire violation along the Jammu and Kashmir border.

“We are happy with the stand of our Prime Minister against Pakistan but we hardly get to hear the news as our radio sets have stopped working,” said Ramu Ram, a resident of Bakhri village.

Others like Mohan Ram, Sushil Ram, Jaggu Ram, Satya Narain Ram, Yogendra Ram and Jagarnath Ram from other villages under Patahi block in the district echoed similar sentiment.

Some of the villagers have already disposed their faulty radios. “Our radio sets stopped functioning within six months of its supply,” said Lalu Manjhi. “We are confident that entire stock distributed among Mahadalits, bearing the monogram of Philips or Santosh, lacked genuine parts. This is the reason the devices developed technical snags within six months,” he added.

When The Telegraph asked district welfare officer Krishan Ram as to why the radio sets supplied to Mahadalits conked out, he said: “That particular scheme was implemented through the welfare department at the district level. But how we can assure the quality or the genuineness of the parts distributed in every block?”

The founder president of Samajik Shodh Evam Vikas Kendra and the spokesperson of Musahar Vikas Manch, Amar, said: “The Scheme of the government was good and progressive. It sought to uplift the Mahadalits with information but owing to the sub-standard quality of the devices, the project failed.”

He added: “A similar error (supply of sub-standard gadgets) could lead to the failure of the e-governance scheme announced by the Centre for every gram panchayat in the country.”