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Sans toilets, 500 houses lose power too
Around 500 households have been in the dark for more than five days due to lack of power supply. What makes this prolonged power cut unique is that it is neither result of the dearth in the power supply nor any other mishap but absence of toilets.
Chintalapudi: Around 500 households have been in the dark for more than five days due to lack of power supply. What makes this prolonged power cut unique is that it is neither result of the dearth in the power supply nor any other mishap but absence of toilets. In an attempt to make the district as an open-defecation free district, district collector K Bhaskar earlier directed the officials to stop the ration and power supply to those houses where there are no individual toilets.
Following these orders, the mandal development officers came out with a list of defaulters who did not construct individual toilets in the villages, of various mandals in West Godavari district. In Chintalapudi constituency the officials have disconnected power services to 500 houses in Lingapalem mandal, following the directions from the mandal parishad development officer. Even as the house owners requested the Andhra Pradesh Eastern Power Distribution Company Limited (APEDCL) employees not to disconnect the services and asked for some extinction of time to construct the toilets.
In Yadavalli village of Lingapalem mandal, several connections have been disconnected by the officials. Villager Sirisha of Yadavalli said, “the linemen disconnected the service to my house eight days back. When asked, he just said as per the directions of the officials, they disconnected the power services.” She also said a four-month-old boy is suffering from sweating due to lack of current during this summer. Mosquitoes and severe heat are making the children sick, she said.
Yadavalli Ward Member Lakshman Rao said without any information the officials stopped the power supply. About 40 services in the village were disconnected. “We requested officials to give some more time to construct the toilets as the masons and workers are not available. For the last eight days, the villagers are suffering a lot under the scorching sun, heat and sweating,” he said.
When contacted Assistant Engineer, APEDCL M Satish Kumar said as per the directions of MPDO K Krishna Kumar, the power supply was stopped to that house where toilets were not constructed. According to him, in Yadavalli 40 Services, Singagudem 40 Services, Thochilaka 15 services were disconnected. Overall in Lingapalem manual 200 power services were disconnected.
Lingapalem MPDO K Krishna Kumari said as part of Swachandra Pradesh, the officials already told the villagers to construct individual latrines in their houses. The officials and staff repeatedly told the villagers of Yadavalli about the construction of the toilets. However, no one cared about the constructions. For the last two months, the ration and pension were stopped to those failed to construct the toilets. Now the power services are disconnected as per the directions from the district collector K Bhaskar, she added.
By G Rama Chandra Sarma/ Kattu Boyina Ramesh
