Children study as their mother prepares dinner under suta light in their hut at Bhabnathpur of Bhagalpur. Picture by Amit Kumar

Bhabnathpur (Bhagalpur), April 3: Residents here have devised an innovative way to deal with the power crisis.

While residents of Bhagalpur city took to the warpath to demand proper power supply, residents of several hamlets here are using “suta light” for lighting up their huts in the dark.

A generator set operates in the hamlet with people donating kerosene, which they collect from the public distribution system shop.

“There is very little power supply as the Sultanganj grid of the Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB) usually remains down. Each family donates three litres of kerosene every month from the BPL card quota to Pravin Kumar Roy, the generator operator. Roy provides power supply to each house after sunset,” said Ramanand Roy, a retired engineer of Jamalpur railway workshop.

“The poor villagers instead of lighting up their homes with oil lamps have the opportunity to have electric lights. Second, students and their mothers could easily complete their work in the evening,” he added.

Pravin Kumar Roy, a farmer who operates the generator set, said: “Each villager has to give me three litres of kerosene for four hours (6-10pm) power supply to light up a 8-14W CFL light for a month. “My 8HP generator can produce 6KW electricity and I have over 300 subscribers spread across six small villages. Since 8-14W CFL are slim-looking bulbs, people call it ‘suta light’,” he said.

Roy has been providing power supply to the villagers since May, 2009 and does not charge any money for the service.

“I do not make any profit and in many cases, I have pay for the maintenance of the generator set and supply of wires. But since it is a community service, I do not have a problem,” he said.

“Earlier, we used to light up kerosene lamps that produced a lot of smoke and the light too was dim. Children could not complete their lessons and the women had to face difficulties cooking dinner in the evening,” Sabita Devi, a villager, said.

“We can easily complete our homework and lessons. Besides, mother has no difficulty in preparing dinner,” said Chhutu Kumar, a student. Other students, Priyanka Kumari, Anil Kumar and Bikash Kumar echoed Chhutu.

“One CFL bulb is enough for us in the evening. Children can complete their lessons and we can prepare the food as well. Moreover, we don’t have to inhale smoke from kerosene lamps,” said Meera Devi, a housewife.

She said the PDS shop gave three litres of kerosene to each APL/BPL card holder. She acknowledged that Roy never charges any extra amount for supplying power. “Since we live closer to nature, we do not need power consuming electrical appliances. We just need a bulb to light our homes in the evening,” Bucchi Devi said.

Ramkishore Roy, a retired state government employee, said in 1961, the Sultanganj grid of BSEB supplied power to the village.

“We hardly get 1-2 hours of power supply in a day and that too, there is a problem of low voltage. We know that the government cannot provide us proper power supply. Therefore, we have developed this community service,” he said.

He pointed out Rajiv Gandhi Rural Electrification Project has no impact in the village.

“It is a realistic and practical approach by villagers to light up their houses with their own resources. They are not fighting like the people of Bhagalpur or Sultanganj who recently burnt down power stations and damaged public property to press for the demand of proper power supply,” said a senior BSEB officer of the Bhagalpur circle.

He refused to comment on the power scenario in the village.