Nawadih (Jharkhand): Ever heard of paying Rs 5 to recharge a mobile phone battery? Welcome to Nawadih village, which falls under Jharkhand's Tamar constituency from where chief minister Shibu Soren was seeking to enter the state assembly—the locals here have to pay up each time their cell phones run out of charge.
"What can we do? This is our fate. As there is no electricity in the village, most of us use solar power for energy requirement, and some of us make a living by recharging cells (of mobile phones)," says D. Pramanik, a resident of Nawadih.
"We don't expect much from the political leaders. They come during polls only to make promises that remain unfulfilled," says an elderly woman in the village. "The crowd you find now has come just to see the helicopter, and not to see the leaders," adds the woman showing her distrust of politicians' campaigning in the area.
It is not only the lack of electricity that has angered thevillagers, but also a canal going dry because of damage to the barrage on the Kanchi river, affecting irrigation in the area.
"The villagers depend on agriculture and with the canal going dry for a year, the farmers are depending on rainwater and wells," says a teacher of Nawadih high school, requesting not to be identified.
Courtesy: livemint.com
