Phoklong village in Tamenglong yet to know what is electricity!
Source: Hueiyen News Service / RC Mangangcha

Imphal, January 15 2013: Although electricity plays a great role in the development of any society in today's world, people of Phoklong village in Tousem Sub-division of Tamenglong district are yet to see the light of electricity.

Phoklong is situated at a distance of only 13 km from Tousem Sub-Division headquarters.

Consisting of around 130 houses with a population of 900 villagers and 700 voters, Phoklong is a small village of Zeme tribe of the Zeliangrong group.

Even though the Government of India is said to be putting in best efforts to electrify all villages in the country under its Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY), it is still a distant dream for the villagers of Phoklong to get a glimpse of electricity lighting up their houses.

What is even more disturbing is the fact that majority of the villagers do not even know what electricity is.

RGGVY is a scheme of the India government which aimed at electrifying BPL (Below Poverty Line) families free of cost and it was initiated on April 4, 2005.However, implementation of the scheme has become flopped in Manipur, more particularly in remote villages like Phoklong, where the state government and its concerned departments are turning a blind eye into the woes of the deprived villagers.

Besides the problem of electricity, safe drinking water, proper transportation, health benefits and education facility are still a far cry for the villagers of Phoklong who make their living from jhum cultivation, orange farming and gathering of firewoods from the hills.

Surrounded by Tagoram, Ketang, Katiyang and New Maglong villages, one can noticed Phoklong has not changed anything in the last half a century when compared with other nearby villages.

Speaking to Hueiyen Lanpao, Pastor of the village P Nimkam (55) said that they felt very sad whenever they see the neighbouring villages of Assam state which is located at a distance of some few kms glittering with electric lights.

For those who could not afford to buy candles and kerosene oil, pieces of pine wood are the only means for lighting their houses at night.

Nimkam informed that apart from absence of electricity, villagers are facing numerous other inconveniences like lack of proper medical facility.

"In order to get medical treatment, patients are needed to be transported upto the PHC at Tousem with the help of traditional carts, and there have been many cases where the patients died on the way to the PHC due to poor condition of the road", he pointed out.

Lack of safe drinking water is another difficulty that the villagers of Phoklong have to endure, specially during March and April when all the nearby streams get dry up.

The Pastor expressed desire for the government to construct a water reservoir in the village so that the villagers do not have to travel long distance to fetch water.

Phoklong Primary School is the only educational institute in the village and it has more than 250 students with eight government and two private teachers.

So, the villagers encounter various inconveniences while sending their children for further study to Haflong or Tamenglong.

Taking into consideration of this, the Pastor appealed to the government for upgrading the school.

Even though the village has families with BPL and APL cards, they do not get any benefits under any of these schemes till date.

They have approached the concerned officials on numerous occasions in this regard but no one has paid any attention to their complaints.

Moreover, Phoklong village may be known for production of Orange, but due to deplorable condition of the road for bringing their products to Imphal to fetch a good price, the villagers have been compelled to go to Jiribam and Silchar even though they have to sell their products at a very cheap rate, thus getting only a marginal profit from the orange cultivation.

"If the Government improves the road connectivity of the village, we can come down to Imphal and sell our oranges in plenty", Pastor Nimkam added.

Comment