Andhua village in Murshidabad’s Farakka block has begun receiving formal electricity infrastructure after years in which residents relied on unauthorised connections, with poles, wires and a transformer now being installed for around 1,200 households.
The project is expected to bring legally metered electricity to the village during the festive season. More than 100 residents have already applied for official electricity connections, according to the report by Sangbad Pratidin.
Andhua had remained listed as an unelectrified village in the state electricity department’s records despite being located near the 2,100-megawatt NTPC Farakka thermal power station. The power station was dedicated to the nation in 1986 and currently has six operational units.
Residents have said that their ancestors gave land for the thermal power project. Some families received employment and compensation at the time. NTPC later installed streetlights and electrical lines in the area, but residents in the north and central parts of the village allegedly began drawing unauthorised connections from those lines to run appliances, including air-conditioners and refrigerators.
The practice continued for years, partly because residents believed that land acquisition for the power station entitled them to free electricity. NTPC periodically took action, but the problem persisted. The company’s position, as reported, was that it could not directly sell electricity to individual homes and therefore could not provide household meters. As a result, the village continued to be recorded as unelectrified by the electricity department even while large quantities of power were allegedly being consumed through illegal connections.
The unauthorised connections also affected electricity supply in the southern part of the village, where residents reportedly faced persistent low voltage. The current project is a joint effort by the state government and NTPC. NTPC has allocated Rs 1.91 crore, while the state electricity department is carrying out the remaining distribution infrastructure work.
Most of the electricity poles have already been installed, and a transformer is expected to be commissioned shortly, according to information cited from the electricity department. The installation of the transformer is central to converting the existing informal supply arrangement into a regular distribution network with household connections and billing.
Zakir Hossain, former head of the Beniagram panchayat, said the village had a three-phase line but no transformer, which contributed to the confusion. He said residents had now applied to obtain meters by paying for legal connections.
The project also links electricity access to the administrative status of households. Minister of State for Power Gargi Das Ghosh said illegal hooking would not be tolerated and that consumers taking legal connections would increase revenue and become eligible for government benefits. Her statement places the village’s transition within a broader effort to move households from informal consumption to the formal electricity system.
BJP Malda South organisational secretary Ayan Ghosh said the long-standing problem was nearing resolution and that NTPC had also assured the village of drinking water and health camps. The immediate infrastructure milestone remains the installation of the transformer and the subsequent rollout of meters to households that have applied for legal supply.
