Andhua village in Murshidabad’s Farakka block has begun receiving formal electricity infrastructure, ending its status as one of West Bengal’s last officially unelectrified villages and bringing legal power connections within reach of around 1,200 households.
The electrification work includes the installation of electricity poles, cables and a transformer. Most of the poles have reportedly already been installed, while the transformer is expected to be put in place shortly. More than 100 residents have applied for legal electricity connections and meters, according to the report.
The village is located near the 2,100-megawatt Farakka NTPC thermal power station, which was dedicated to the nation in 1986. Six units of the plant are currently operational. Residents have said that their ancestors gave land for the project, and that some families received employment and compensation in return.
The report said NTPC had earlier installed streetlights and cables in the area. Residents in the north and central parts of the village allegedly began drawing electricity illegally from those lines, using it to operate appliances including air-conditioners and refrigerators. The practice continued for years despite occasional action by NTPC, while some residents believed that land acquisition entitled them to free electricity permanently.
Because the lines were not connected to household meters through the state electricity system, Andhua continued to be recorded as an unelectrified village in the electricity department’s records. At the same time, the report said, illegal connections were causing electricity losses running into lakhs of rupees every month. The unauthorised connections also contributed to persistent low voltage in the southern part of the village.
NTPC and the West Bengal government have now planned a formal distribution network for the settlement. NTPC has allocated Rs 1.91 crore for the work, while the state electricity department is handling the remaining infrastructure. The project is intended to shift households from unauthorised hooking to billed electricity supplied through meters.
Zakir Hossain, former head of the Beniagram gram panchayat, said the confusion had persisted because the village had a three-phase line but no transformer. He said residents were now applying to obtain electricity legally by paying for their connections.
West Bengal Minister of State for Power Gargi Dasgupta said the government would not tolerate illegal hooking. “If people take legal electricity by paying for it, revenue will increase and people will also receive all government benefits,” she said, according to the report.
BJP Malda South organisational secretary Ayan Ghosh said the long-standing problem was nearing resolution. The report also said NTPC had assured residents that it would arrange drinking-water and health camps. The transformer installation and completion of the distribution network are the next steps before household connections can be activated.
