Imphal, August 17 2010: Believe it or not ! Almost 92 per cent of the total villages of Manipur have been electrified as per records available with the Electricity Department.

However, contrary to the official records, many villages are virtually living in the age of kerosene lamps or candles.

Out of 2183 villages of the State as recorded in the census report of 1991, 2007 villages have been electrified under the rural electrification programme.

The history of electrification in Manipur began in 1930 when the Manipur State Electricity Board installed one generator of 100 KW capacity and another generator of 56 KW at Leimakhong.

This was followed by the installation of two diesel generators at Keishampat Power House during World War II.

Power generated by the diesel generators were supplied to Imphal town and the royal palace.

In 1971, peak hour power requirement of the State was 3.6 MW.

This is against the present requirement of 155 MW whereas the State is receiving only 110 MW.

In view of the stepped up measures being taken up by both the Centre and State Governments to meet the deadline of hundred per cent electrification by 2012, The Sangai Express condcuted a field assessment trip.

The findings were rather discouraging and quite incompatible with the official records available at Imphal.

Official records maintained that 323 villages in Imphal East and Imphal West districts have been electrified together with 45 villages of Bishnupur and 87 villages of Thoubal districts.

In other districts, the number of electrified villages is 485 villages out of 518 in Senapati district, 391 out of 502 in Churachandpur, 213 out of 222 villages in Ukhrul district, 173 out of 194 villages in Tamenglong district and 284 out of 292 villages in Chandel district.

Going by the official records, all the villages of the State should be lit.

But the real picture observed on the field showed something else.

People of many remote hill villages are not aware that their villages have been electrified according to records of Electricity Department.

In other cases, wires were connected, transformer installed and power supplied on the day of inauguration only for the power supply to be terminated the next day.

Again, the diesel generators at Thanlon and Parbung are in running conditions and being kept in stand-by mode.

But when this reported visited the two villages, the diesel generators were found defunct.

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