RANIPET: For S Selvi, a 30-year-old Irular woman from Kalavai village in Ranipet, 20 years of life in darkness will end soon as District Collector Baskarapandian has paid Rs 57,000 to get power connections for 19 Irular families in Athiyanam, Kalavai, and Mel Nelli villages.
With no money to pay Rs 3,000 each as deposit fee for new power connections, the only sources of light after dusk for these families were lamps and candles. Receipts for the deposit money paid from the Collector’s discretionary fund were handed over to the fami l ies on Wednesday.
For Selvi’s neighbour V Pushpa, getting a connection means her school-going children no longer have to study under candlelight. She is happy that her six-year-old son’s dream of watching cartoons on TV is finally going to be a reality. It is also an escape for them from snakes and scorpions that threaten them in the dark, Pushpa said.
Collector Baskarapandian came across the plights of the families during an inspection. “We found that despite electric poles, a few families in Athiyanam were living without electricity. So, we surveyed the number of Irular families living without power across the district,” Baskarapandian told TNIE.
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While the people at Athiyanam village have got the connections, families in other villages will get them soon. The district administration carried out an enumeration exercise of Irulars here, and listed out the basic amenities they need. Ranipet has an Irular population of 9,500 in 2,899 families across 172 regions.
As they live in small groups in isolated places, authorities have found it difficult to identify and rectify their problems. Baskarapandian believes the enumeration exercise will find a solution to this.
The number of people who needed housing and pattas is identified, and a proposal has been sent to the State government to build houses, he said, and that it will be built under the Prime Minister Awas Yojana (PMAY) and the Kalaignar Housing scheme, he added.