Memorable Holi: Electricity comes to this village of 20

GREATER NOIDA: The 20-odd residents of Tilwada have an additional reason to celebrate Holi this year.
After years of appeal and rejection, the village has finally got power connection a day before the festival.

Officials of the Noida Power Company Limited on Thursday installed a 25kv transformer in the village and set up six metered connections after drawing a 1,300-metre line from neighbouring Gharbara. Power had eluded Tilwada for so long as the village did not have the required number of residents.

Moreover, as the village is situated near the confluence of the Yamuna and the Hindon rivers, it had been ravaged by floods for years, prompting most villagers to shift to other places. Over the past few years, as the water level in the rivers subsided, floods became a rarity and some of the villagers made a comeback.

The power connections were inaugurated on Thursday by Jewar MLA Dhirendra Singh, who had made electricity in Tilwada one of his election planks.

“Tilwada is another village in independent India which has been covered by electricity. Since the village is near the confluence, the flood situation was common here earlier. There were hardly any inhabitants as they had all moved to neighbouring villages. It is only in the past few years that there hasn’t been any flood in Tilwada. The residents have returned and so has the need for power,” said Sarnath Ganguly, the general manager of NPCL.

Ganguly said NPCL had spent around Rs 10 lakh on ensuring power supply to the village. The official said the villagers of Tilwada had been approaching them repeatedly to a get a power connection for their village. The residents had also appealed to MLA Singh in this regard.

MLA Singh, who had made an election promise to the villagers, inaugurated the new connection at Tilwada on Thursday afternoon.

“Besides reaching out to deprived areas, the development of the 22 million people of Uttar Pradesh and providing basic facilities to the residents of such areas is the priority of the UP government. I intend to continue on that path with an aim to ensure that basic civic facilities reach the rural areas of the district of Gautam Budh Nagar,” said Singh.

Others who were present during the inaugural programme included Gaurav Sharma, the deputy general manager of NPCL, and Sukhwir Singh a former village pradhan.