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Indian village marks 25 years in dark despite electric posts - CNN.com
- By Harmeet Shah Singh, CNN
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- According to an independent power expert, over 40 per cent of India's population still depends on kerosene for lighting, such as these children using lanterns on the grounds of their school.
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For a village in India's faraway northeast, it is time for an unusual jubilee: Posts to convey electrical power arrived in Kanugaon in 1985. In 2010, residents still find themselves without electricity -- leading them to mark the 25th anniversary of what they refer to as a life in darkness.
"All our petitions with the authorities have gone in vain," said Tankeswar Das, a member of the group, "Committee to mark the silver jubilee of electricity poles."
He said hundreds of villagers on Sunday used a unique method in a new bid to make their voice heard -- a mock "yajna," or a Hindu fire ritual.
"Maybe a yajna to atone for any sin that might be depriving us of this essential service works since all other efforts have not," worked out, Das said.
Located in Assam state, Kanugaon has been on India's subsidized power-supply plan that the country has launched to cover more than 100,000 darkened villages by March 2012.
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