INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightJinen MaibamImage caption
Several of the families in Leisang have bought television sets
As India enters full election mode, political leaders are criss-crossing the length and breadth of the country, addressing rallies
The high-decibel campaigns have lots of sound and fury, but rarely address the issues that actually affect millions of people
The TheIndianSubcontinent's Geeta Pandey is travelling across India to report on some of them.The tiny village of Leisang in the
north-eastern state of Manipur made global news last year when it became the "last Indian village to be electrified".For decades, political
parties have been promising bijli (electricity) - along with sadak and pani (road and water) - in their election manifestos.So in April
2018, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted saying "Leisang had been powered and empowered", it seemed that the government had addressed
at least one of these three issues.But when I visited there last week, I found the power supply erratic and the villagers neither "powered"
nor "empowered".Home to 13 families - or 70 members - of the Kuki hill tribe, Leisang is just over 80km (50 miles) from Imphal, the capital
of Manipur.But it's not easy to get to
The 35km (22-mile) highway from the nearest town of Kangpokpi is battered in places and full of potholes in others
The last 3km (1.9 miles) is a steep climb over a rocky path and can only be navigated on a bike or by foot
In the rainy season, the village is almost cut off, with the path often waterlogged and slippery.Image copyrightJinen MaibamImage caption
Leisang is home to 13 families of the Kuki hill tribe
There's no school or health facility in Leisang and
though residents here have voter ID cards, they are too few to carry any political heft
Village chief Tongsat Haokip says all the other villages in their neighbourhood got power in 2017, but when they enquired, they were told
they were "not in the plan"."But no-one ever gave us a reason, so we petitioned the top electricity official in Kangpokpi
He said, 'You're top of our list for next year.' He told us to be patient."In early April last year, there was sudden activity in the
First some officials came for an inspection and then over two weeks, poles, cables, wires, electrical accessories and a transformer were
Finally, the villagers were told that they would be "connected to the grid" between 5-6pm on 27 April.Lamneithan Lotjem was among "the 20-30
people", including women and children, who had gathered at the village chief's house for the event
Tea was prepared, the switch was flicked on, and all eyes were on the bulb hanging from the front porch.Ms Lotjem was positioned right under
the bulb when it suddenly came on.Read more from Geeta Pandey"We all clapped, jumped up and down with joy
I was shouting, 'Light avatai, light ahungtai (Light is shining, light has come)'
Some people were dancing," she says with an embarrassed laugh.That night, no-one in the village slept
They all gathered in the only house with a TV set and watched through the night
The villagers were euphoric."It was almost like they were reborn," says Nehkam Doungul, Mr Haokip's uncle.In the days that followed, many
families bought TV sets and many women dreamed of buying washing machines and rice cookers.Image copyrightJinen MaibamImage caption
The power supply in the village remains erratic
But the euphoria was short-lived
It's been a year since that day and the villagers tell me that on a good day, they get power for five to six hours
A fault, however small, takes a minimum of three days to attend to and last year, on one occasion, Leisang was plunged back into darkness
for three whole months.Senior power department official in Manipur H Shantikumar Singh admits that the village once lost power for three
months because they could not get there to fix it
"It's remote and difficult to reach, especially if there are landslides on the way," he says
But he denies that the village receives only six hours of power and insists that there is enough power to supply everyone in the state
Yet on the day I visit, there is no power in the village
It comes an hour later, but the supply is off again in 15 minutes.Ms Lotjem, who works in the fields from 8am to 4pm on most days, says when
there's power in the evening, she finishes off the housework and watches TV
"But it's impossible to plan because the supply is so erratic." Image copyrightJinen MaibamImage caption
Leisang village
chief Tongsat Haokip says their village has been neglected for far too long
Mr Doungul says rain and high wind always result
in power outages and the villagers now joke that "the light goes off even if a dog pees on the pole".Power came to Leising as part of PM
Modi's pledge in August 2015 to electrify every single village within 1,000 days
In summer 2014 when Mr Modi came to power, 97.5% of India's nearly 600,000 villages were already electrified, says Abhishek Jain of the
Delhi-based Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW)
A village is deemed electrified if 10% of its households, and shared facilities like the school, health centre and community hall, are
connected to the grid, he says
By that definition, officials claim that India is fully electrified
But, Mr Jain says, a connection does not mean an assured supply of electricity and that's where the major problem lies
"The government is now promising 24x7 supply to every citizen by end of March, but that is a really distant dream," he says
Image copyrightJinen MaibamImage caption
Nehkam Doungal says "we didn't even think in our dreams that we'd get power in
our lifetime"
For instance, in India's most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, the rural population gets power for less than
12 hours a day even though some of the villages were connected to the grid more than two decades back
The situation in some southern states and the eastern states of West Bengal and Orissa is better, but the heart of India - Uttar Pradesh and
Bihar - remains largely in darkness.In July last year when Mr Modi interacted via a video link with people from villages that were
electrified during his tenure in the past four years, Mr Doungal, who represented Leisang, told him that "we didn't even think in our dreams
that we'd get power in our lifetime"."The prime minister said if you face any problems, do let me know
But before I could share our problems with him, they cut us off and he moved on to speak to other people
"If only we could tell him about our problems, I'm sure he would address them," he tells me, rather regretfully.I ask him what he would have
told the prime minister if he had a chanceImage copyrightJinen MaibamImage caption
Lamneithan Lotjem (right) was
positioned right under the bulb when it suddenly came on
His list is long: "The nearest primary school is 1.5km away and as
there's no transport, the children have to walk
There's no street light in the village
My nephew (the village chief)'s wife died in childbirth because she couldn't get to the hospital in time
When her labour pains started, four men took turns to carry her on their backs to the road so she could be taken to hospital
They lost so much precious time
If the road was good, she and her baby could have been saved," he says.Adds village secretary Komlun Khongsai: "We are the forgotten people
Electricity is the first thing we got from the government." After living in the dark for so long, the villagers had hoped that development
would follow electricity to their village.Image copyrightJinen MaibamImage caption
The village is not easy to get to
Mr Doungal says that since theirs is the last village to be electrified in India, "it means Leisang is special" and must be
He points to a nearby security force camp that has 24x7 power and asks, "Why can't we be connected to the same line"But Leisang's hope for
round the clock electricity supply seems like a dream that's not within reach, at least in the short term.Two days after my return from
Manipur, as I sit down to write this piece at home in the capital Delhi, the power goes off
It's 11 am, and when I call the supplier BSES to check, I'm told the power outage is do some maintenance work and that the supply will be
This is a four-hour unannounced outage
And let me tell you, it's not that uncommon.Leising will have to learn to live with erratic power supply - much like the rest of India.
