Studying in the dark: Trishuli village in Chhattisgarh's Balrampur is yet to get power connections
For students making strenuous efforts to give the Class 10 exam, burning the midnight oil is not a cliche at their village where the brightest night light is the silver glow of the Moon if the candle has burned out. Electricity is yet to reach Trishuli village in Chhattisgarh's Balrampur district, 415 kilometres from state capital Raipur.
Trishuli village is only 15 km from Bharatiya Janata Party parliamentarian Ramvichar Netam's house.
The villagers say they chip in with firewood and small oil lamps so that students can go through their textbooks by the dim light of the bonfire or the lamps.
"Government has started primary education for middle schools, but there are no proper roads to reach the schools. Due to unavailability of electricity, students have to study near a fireplace with some help from the villagers," one of the students told news agency ANI.
The villagers say they have asked the district authorities several times to bring power connection to their homes. But they have got no response.
Villagers in Trishuli village say they do everything they can so that students can study under any available source of light
"Nobody in this village has cleared matriculation. Only one student of the same village is studying to clear matriculation even when there is lack of power in the village," another student said.
Other settlements in the area will get electricity this year, the residents said, adding it's only their village that has been left out of the power map.
"The deadline for nearby villages including Bhundipha... has been kept till April, which is to be completed in two phases. This work of power expansion will be given to Trishuli village soon," District Collector Avinash Kumar Sharan said.
In December 2017, another tribal village in the same district in Chhattisgarh got power connection -- the people of Jokapatha could turn on the switch for the first time since India got independence.