Minister for Power R. Viswanathan hails from Dindigul district. But, ironically, Meenakshi Oothu, a village in Manalur panchayat near Perumparai on lower Kodaikanal hills in the district, is without electricity in this day and age.
“We wind up our activities by sunset. My two school-going children depend on a kerosene lantern for their studies at night. Two litres of kerosene, costing Rs. 30 a litre, offered in the ration shop is insufficient to burn the lamp for a month. In the open market, kerosene is sold for Rs.60 a litre,” says K. Thangaiah, a farm labourer.
With no money to buy kerosene in the open market, these villagers languish in the dark amid insects for several days in a month.
The recent rain has wreaked havoc at this village. Walls of many houses have collapsed.
Many residents live on the declivity of the hill, under constant threat of landslip.
Both the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam governments were prompt in distributing all free electronic gadgets — colour television sets, fan, mixers and grinders — to the villagers. These gadgets just decorate their houses. “With no electricity, we cannot use them,” says A. Murugan, another farm worker. Power supply is available in all villages in the Manalar panchayat except Meenakshi Oothu, just three km away.
“Proposals have been sent to the government. The panchayat erected lampposts for solar streetlights. We have taken all initiatives to provide power,” says Manalar panchayat president M.C. Rathina Kumar. But lights, battery and other equipment for the lamps never reached the village, the residents also say.
The residents could heave a sigh little relief after Gandhigram Trust, in association with National Institute of Rural Development, Hyderabad, offered solar lamps to 27 families at the village. “A solar dryer will be offered to the village to process pepper, the main crop in that area. Villagers would be trained to use it,” says trust secretary K. Sivakumar.
