Power milestone

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday announced electrification of all census villages of India, with the service reaching 18,452 of the total 5.9 lakh villages during the tenure of his government. It is indeed a milestone in infrastructure-building in the country, even if ‘electrification’ only means 10 per cent of the households in a village may have the facility, and power is actually supplied only occasionally on those lines. Scepticism sets in only when the government presents it as evidence of work being done at a blistering pace. Because a comparative analysis would show the UPA electrified 12,030 villages per year while the NDA government electrified 4,842. But figures often do not tell the true tale, and what should matter is the quality of life of the citizens of a country.

Power is not a luxury, but an enabling service that allows villages to jump straight from a medieval life to the present. Last year, a World Bank report placed India and Nigeria at the top of the list of most power-deficient countries. That is a reality; it means 17 per cent households in India still don’t have power, and in certain states such as Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand the figure is more than 40 per cent. What also matters is the duration and quality of power supplied, which would leave the notion of ‘complete electrification’ in tatters.

It is the final year for the government before the elections. And the need to count accomplishments is understandable. But it may not do the government good seeking credit for its initiatives that have to be actually executed by state governments, such as the Real Estate Regulation Act, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Smart Cities, or even electrification. Even a supremely important scheme such as the GST has been executed in a manner that has left the business community hurting more than earlier, with a system comparable in complexity only to Pakistan. A major challenge remains in people being able to pay for the services, whether power or LPG. And that is where the state of the economy and employment rates will come into question.