From darkness to light

By Our Reporter  

SHILLONG, DEC 14: For years, Khrang village in Mawkynrew block of East Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya lived under darkness however Wednesday will be a day they will always remember as they finally got the fabled ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ through solar light distributed by the an NGO, Arts of Living.

Even an increase in the number of rural household in the village has not cajoled the Meghalaya Electric Corporation Limited to put up its effort to reach out to more number of villagers. Unable to pay huge amount of money to set up transformer, several houses in the village continues to be in darkness.

Local MLA Remington Pyngrope said,  “After I became MLA, I saw this village has more than 300 houses but only few electricity connection from MECL, several times I reach out to state government for help, as the village is under darkness but still  the problem persist in the village.”

“Villagers who mainly depend on agriculture for their livelihood cannot effort to pay for electricity connection from MECL,” he said, adding, “Today I am really happy that my friends from Art of Living have landed their helping hand for my people as they were under darkness for past several years.”

One of the villagers Barishisha while expressing her joy said, “I am staying here and we 135 houses we do not have electricity and today its big day for us since we are getting solar lights.

The situation is such that in entire village hardly 50-60 houses somehow get to lit a bulb.

For majority living in the village it’s a distant dream.  Under ‘Light a home’ project of Art of Living, an International NGO reached out to the people of the villages and distributed around 135 solar lamps to lit a hope of light.

“ Light A Home’ initiative laid its foundation during October 2012. The aim of this initiative is to bring clean and affordable lighting to 360 million people in India living in 74 million rural households who do not have access to electricity” said Suparna Mordani, a senior faculty of art of Living.

Majority of these people rely on kerosene and other fuels to meet their lighting needs, which is hazardous to both their health and to the environment.

This initiative is first of its kind in Meghalaya.

Interestingly, while, the state government continues to face rural electrification problem, till now, 345 villages in Meghalaya is yet to be electrified.

The state government has proposed to electrified these villages under Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana , a total of 63.03 crore will be sanctioned under this scheme.

Altogether 136 Meghalaya villages have been electrified   in the first week of August this year under the  Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojna.

While state government is busy formulating policies to electrify villages, the practical example set by an NGO in a village has given hope to the villagers of living light.. Now the NGO is planning to take up more such initiative to reach out to people.