ETA: Even after 75 years of independence, a village in Etah district of Uttar Pradesh is still forced to celebrate Diwali under the darkness as the electricity has not touched the boundary of the district so far. While the Yogi government claims to have provided electricity to every village in the state.
On the one hand, Ayodhya illuminated with the lights of nine lakh diyas(earthen lamps) on the eve of Diwali and the country will be lit up with colourful lights at the same time. Whereas, Nagla Tulai village of Etah district will remain in the darkness, despite the village is just around 62 kilometres away from the district headquarter.
The darkness of the village was spotted when the team of ETV Bharat reached Nagla Tulai village, a small village in Etah district with a population of just 300 people and only 100 voters, on Tuesday. It looks like the government officials did not bother about the village due to fewer numbers of voters.
Where the world has been brightened from the LED lights, people of this village are still using candles and lamps to remove the darkness of night. Somehow few houses are managing to kill the darkness with the help of solar panels but that too only last for a few hours. Then people have to travel to Raja ka Rampur, a nearby village at a distance of one kilometre, to get their phone charged. And if there is cloudy weather then they will not even receive the light for a few hours.
The lack of electricity in the village is the biggest challenge for the students as they have to wind up their studies in the daytime. An elder man of the village said that often children also suffer burn injuries as the candle falls while studying under candlelight.
Speaking about the matter to ETV Bharat, Etah District Magistrate Ankit Agarwal said, "a proposal has been sent in the past." If sources are to be believed, no such proposal has been made yet.
In 2015, on the occasion of Independence Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised to provide electricity to the 18,500 villages, which had no electricity that time, in 1,000 days, but this could not happen. However, the government has started Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana and Saubhagya Yojana in this area but yet to light up the dark village.
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