Kindly light
Modi’s complete electrification is an illusion
In the last five decades, the number of poor has decreased considerably. Or so the government has thus declared which does not mean that there are no poor. Instead, the government has changed the criteria for identifying the poor. For example, the government identifies a person whose daily income is below Rs 30 as poor and gives him a BPL card. But what if the government changes the criteria that a person whose daily income is below Rs 20 could be considered as below poverty line.Naturally, the number of poor will come down on paper. It is a clear strategy to remove the poor in the country in the records by reducing their number through a different criteria instead of alleviating the poverty.
Very recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has declared that electrification of all villages in the country was completed. If we felt happy thinking that all houses in the country were electrified, then it means we are cheated. This is just a symbolic statement and it does not mean that the entire country was freed from darkness. It is not so easy to do in the country dominated by villages. It is just a magic of statistics.
Three factors expose the charade of the programmes announced by the government. As the first factor, out of total houses in a village, at least 10 percent of residents need to get power connection, and public utility places like schools, panchayat offices, health centres and community centres should get power facility to declare that a village is completely electrified. As per the government, the village is given 100 percent power facility. But the government data clearly shows that more than 31 million houses were not yet given power. In states like Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Assam, more than 50 percent of houses were not given power. This is the situation even after four years of BJP which came to power by assuring power to all villages. Among 12 states, more than 25 percent of houses are need to be given power connection. When this is the situation, how can we believe if Modi announced uninterrupted power facility by 2019?
More over, complete electrification is a continuous process. When the country was given freedom, it was under complete darkness. Not even 5 percent of the houses were given power facility. Because of the development concept and programmes of Nehru and subsequent prime ministers, the villages have seen the light in phased manner. But now, Modi is trying to get the credit. This means, before Modi coming to power, all the villages were in darkness and under his regime, all the villages were given electrification.
When we introspect, only 1500 villages were given power during 1947. But even those villages were not completely electrified. Even though one or two houses had got power connections in the village, such village was declared as electrified village. During the UPA tenure between 2005 and 2014, total 10,82,000 villages were given power connection and more than 2 crore houses were electrified. Among them 19 million houses were given free electricity. When Modi declared that he would give electricity to all villages, there were only 18452 villages which were not electrified. The UPA government had give power connection to on an average 12,030 villages annually. But the Modi government has given power to just 4842 villages. So, there is nothing to celebrate. When compared to previous government, Modi’s development is very slow. Moreover, the power connection is not yet completed, but the NDA government has earmarked Rs 16,000 crore for this purpose. The programme cannot be successful if the money is reserved. Instead of creating illusion or fooling people through statistics, the Modi government should take an honest step to light up every house. Nowadays, the entire country has been facing the power problem. The power distribution companies are not getting sufficient coal. India has been dependent on coal for producing more than 60 percent of it’s power. But on the other side, the production of coal is declining. This would have a negative impact on the power generation. Are the villages lit up just from electricity connections without providing power?
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Ex-Army officer assaulted, robbed at gunpoint by woman he met through matrimonial website
Mathura(UP), Apr 5 (PTI): A retired Army colonel from Haryana has filed a police complaint here, alleging that he was held hostage, assaulted, looted and forced to participate in an "obscene video" at gunpoint with a woman he met through a matrimonial website, police said on Saturday.
The woman from Mathura, who was allegedly in on the plan to rob him, was working with other accomplices, the ex-armyman said in his complaint filed on Thursday.
According to Barsana Station House Officer (SHO) Raj Kamal Singh, Colonel Rajneesh Soni (retired), a resident of Gurugram, reported that he was contacted by a woman from Barsana on a matrimonial website in January. The woman allegedly agreed to marry him, and they began communicating.
The woman allegedly persuaded the colonel to visit Barsana on January 25, requesting that he visit the Radharani temple. When he arrived, she arranged for his stay at a guest house and took him on a tour of the area, including a visit to the temple, the complainant said.
After returning to the guest house, the woman and her accomplices allegedly told the colonel that her brother had been involved in an accident and they needed to leave immediately. They then led him to a waiting car.
"Once outside the town limits, the colonel alleges that he was attacked by the occupants of the car. They seized his phone, physically assaulted him, and forced him to contact relatives and friends to transfer money," the SHO said.
"He was then taken back to the guest house, where he was allegedly forced to participate in obscene videos and photographs at gunpoint. He was threatened that the videos would be made public if he reported the incident," the officer said.
The colonel has alleged that his purse, bag, gold chain, debit card and Rs. 12,000 in cash were stolen from the guest house.
After an unsuccessful attempt at locating the perpetrators himself, the colonel finally reported the incident to the Barsana police two days ago, he said.
"A case has been registered under relevant sections of the BNS and all facts are being investigated. Further action will be taken as per facts found in the investigation," the SHO said.
