Q. Power situation in our state has improved significantly over the past five years. There has been no power cuts and your reach has also been overwhelming. How West Bengal is placed vis -à-vis the national performance in the power sector?
Ans. To start with, in India there are almost 80,000 villages that are yet to be electrified. In our state, the figure is roughly 7,000, and most of which are discrete villages and remotely situated. Of these 7,000 villages yet to be electrified, roughly 5,000 are spread over the districts of Midnapore, Purulia, Bankura and parts of Dinajpur. We have also identified 1,500 mouzas in these 5,000 villages where number of houses per mouza is less than 20. This is a major problem — as we cannot put grid connection in these areas. So, going by this mouza coverage, India and the state’s average are almost the same. In some parts of the country it is better than Bengal, and other parts we are in a better shape. The most important thing is that 30% of the rural houses in the country are covered, and similar is the situation in our state too. But surprisingly, we are the first state in the country that is giving a special emphasis on rural electrification. Only in our state, of late, a separate organisation has been set up in the name of West Bengal Rural Electrification Development Corporation (WBREDC) and are trying to grow very rapidly and surpass the national standard.

Q. What are your plans for the current financial year?
Ans. For the last one-and-half year, we are trying very seriously for rural electrification and have taken up electrifying roughly over 2,000 mouzas across the state. Our target is to cover 85% of these by the end of this financial year and cover 100% by the end of the tenth 5-Year Plan, i.e. by March 2007. Last financial year we had taken up a programme of electrifying 1,227 mouzas. The programme has already been sanctioned and work is progressing at a steady pace. This year we have again targeted another 1,000 mouzas. Once we complete this, we will be successful in extending electricity to almost 86% mouzas by March 2002.

Q. Fund seems to be a major hurdle for the states to undertake major reforms. What problems you are facing and what remedial measures you are contemplating to overcome this?
A.We have not yet received any such financial assistance from the federal government. We have already approached the Planning Commission for undertaking a detailed mouza-wise survey. The issue is pending there for the past 10 months and they are yet to undertake the study. The Planning Commission is now proposing to give more stress on rural electrification, however, they are yet to finalise the plan. In our case, we are taking funds from the state government — some part as grant and some as loan. We have also received a Rs 135-crore loan from National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development (NABARD). Last financial year, we worked on a programme of Rs 373 crore, part of which was loan and part came as grant.

Q. Have you received any financial assistance from the World Bank or any other overseas funding agencies?
A. Not yet . Fact is that we have not approached the World Bank so far . They have their own strings to pull , which may not be suitable to Bengal’s situation. And I also do not believe that privatization and the approach that is being talked about by the World Bank is totally effective and workable in the rural areas of the country, not just only in West Bengal. Let them think of their own model. But if any soft approach is proposed to us, we could consider such offer, only if it is conducive to us. We are talking to many organisations — DFID, JBIC and NRC.

Q. Renewable energy is the steadily gaining prominence these days. What developments you have
made in this field?
Ans. In the field of renewable energy resources, the development in West Bengal is said to be the best. We are concentrating on home-lighting and photo-volatile cells. We are also planning to cover over 1,500 mouzas by non-conventional energies. Again, as renewable energy has a limited application, we are trying to develop it in the sense of hybridizing the solar with gassifier, gassifier with…. We have already initiated 7-8 power projects in the Sunderban area. We are targeting to cover 1,430 mouzas through solar home lighting units under the programme ‘Surya Sanjog’.

Q. What are the major projects in your pipeline?
A. We have a number of projects in our pipeline. Firstly, we have taken up a number of gasifier projects in the Sunderban area. Secondly, we are working to reach electricity in the very remote area in Malda called Bhutni Island. River Ganga surrounds the island, with a population of roughly one lakh with five gram panchayats under two different blocks. The main problem there is we have to cross the river twice. The project would cost us around Rs 4-5 crores and we are expecting to complete it in three years. We are also planning to form a cooperative comprising of local people for coordinating power distribution system in Bhutni Islands. We are already into the process of discussion and the final decision will be taken very shortly.

Q. Agricultural sector accounts for a lion’s share of rural electrification. How much you have progressed in that direction?
Ans. Our activity there is overwhelming. But in many blocks in our state a ban was imposed on lifting of underground water much. So we shall have to compare that analysis/study also, though this is not proposed for all the blocks. In these blocks, we are working on energisation of pump sets and river-lift irrigation in a phased manner. We are seeing the Ranaghat proposal covering 1 lakh hectres of land, but that is in the thinking process.

Q.. In what state of finance your corporation is ?
Ans. No organisation can say that fund is available. Crisis must be there. Where you intend to work there must be crisis. Need-based fund is not available to any organisation, to no state in the country. Ours is rather bitter in relation to many other states in the country.

Q. Are you planning for any bond issue to mop up funds for carrying out your pipeline projects?
Ans. Not yet. Till now we have really not thought of that. We are rather thinking of involving beneficiaries in the whole process. You see in rural electrification loss in the system is havoc — particularly commercial loss. Technical loss must be there, but commercial loss is havoc. So thereby our planning will be to continue to involve beneficiaries in the process. We have to build a mindset of "This electricity is mine", and this will check the commercial loss to a great extent. In the first phase, we are forming transformer-wise beneficiaries, block-level rural electric committees involving panchayat members and forming cooperatives among the beneficiaries.