Is there an ‘Electricity Meter Scam’ In Rural Areas Of Bihar?

Nitish’s government has taken Bihar on the growth track. At least people’s perception and statistics says so. But despite his 2^nd tenure, which is coming to an end, some key facilities that every individual needs today seem to be a distant dream for people in many rural and sub-urban areas of Bihar. Electricity is one of these facilities that still evade the mass. Many areas struggle to get even 4-8 hours of electricity supply in a day while many are happy to get a supply for 12 hours.

Poor electricity supply in the rural areas is hindering agricultural growth, a key industry of Bihar. Due to poor electricity supply, farmers are affected since:

• Automation in agriculture seems impossible
• Programs telecasted for benefit of farmers is inaccessible to them

…And we are talking about development. New industries are yet to take-off. The much hyped initiative to restart sugarcane factories during the initial years of Nitish’s first tenure are nowhere to be seen. I would talk about that sometime later. Let me get back to my main topic for this blog – ‘Electricity and the possible scam around it’.

Few months back there were no electricity meters in rural areas of northern Bihar, region called as Mithilanchal to be specific (I will be restricting myself to this region since I have precise information from this area only. This discussion might be relevant and true for other areas as well). Then, there was a rush to install electricity meters. People were given the meters (They were asked to sign the receipt challan). Thereafter, for past couple of months they have been getting electricity bills where they are paying monthly rental charge for the electricity meter along with the billing based on consumption. Sounds great…a great initiative…then where is the problem???

Interestingly, these meters were never installed. Till date these meters are lying in one corner of every household. But people are charged for it. Company that was given the contract to install the meters never did it. Is it a case where the payment to them has been made without even confirming the implementation on ground? Who are the people behind that company? Is Nitish’s team involved in this potential scam?

Media has never bothered to cover this. This would not possibly make selling news item or increase TRP for them like IPL spot fixing or some other petty news can.

I am of the firm opinion that it can never be possible that a scam of such a magnitude can evade Government and hence Nitish’s or his teams eyes.

I hope this blog has an impact (what-so-ever) to help poor farmers and villagers of Mithilanchal.