Odisha: Electrification Work Starts At NDA Presidential Pick Droupadi Murmu’s Ancestral Village

Murmu, however, does not live in her ancestral village. She had shifted to Rairangpur, a municipal town around 20 kilometres away from Uparbeda under Kusum block, decades ago.

New Delhi: Electrification work was launched on Sunday in a portion of Uparbeda, the ancestral village of NDA presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district, on a war footing after reports on people there remaining in the dark surfaced, reported news agency PTI. 

Murmu, who filed her nomination for presidential polls on June 24, however does not live in her ancestral village. She had shifted to Rairangpur, a municipal town around 20 kilometres away from Uparbeda under Kusum block, decades ago.

As per the report, officials and workers of the Tata Power North Odisha Distribution Limited (TPNODL) reached Uparbeda with earth digging machines, electric poles and transformers to ensure supply of electricity to the portion where it is yet to reach.

“We have issued an order to the Mayurbhanj section of the company to complete electrification work and ensure power supply to the entire Uparbeda village within 24 hours,” a senior official of the TPNODL told PTI.

With a population of 3,500 Uparbeda village has two hamlets — Badasahi which is fully electrified and Dungursahi where only 14 households are yet to get electricity.

The official, who did not want to be named, said that Dungursahi was not electrified as the houses there were constructed on forest land.

“We have no intention to keep the villagers in the dark, but it was so due to lack of certain official clearance,” the official said. The fact that the people in Murmu’s village remain in darkness due to lack of electricity came to the fore when journalists reached her native place to talk to the people after she was nominated the Presidential candidate.

Murmu’s nephew Biranchi Narayan Tudu is a resident of Dungursahi hamlet along with his wife and two children.

“We had requested many people to provide electricity to our Dungursahi hamlet. However, no one paid any heed,” Biranchi’s wife told reporters. She added that they did not bring the matter to the notice of Murmu who visits the village during festivals. 

The matter has been informed to the local MLA and MP during election time in 2019, but nothing has happened, said Chittaranjan Baske, another resident of Uparbeda village adding that people use kerosene lamps to illuminate their houses.