20% of rural populations yet to receive electrical infrastructure.
EMN
Dimapur, April 11
There are 382 villages in Nagaland that continue to wait for electricity to come to their area. Out of about 1, 278 villages in the state, more than three hundred villages across the state comprise the 20% of rural populations that haven’t yet received electrical infrastructure.
Close to 21 percent of rural households in Nagaland continue to depend on Kerosene for lighting whereas majority has access to grid electricity, the current status of electrification in the rural areas shows.
The indicators of energy are electricity and energy infrastructure, sources of fuel and energy and domestic assets that require electricity.
There are 1, 278 “inhabited villages” in Nagaland. The number of ‘electrified’ villages till January 2014 was 896 villages, a percentage of 70.1. The village that has yet to enjoy electricity supply is 382. Very few number of the state’s districts have relatively high percent of un-electrified households, while districts which are in and around the state capital have lower level of un-electrified households. It indicates, though, that the state’s urban areas enjoy a much better situation than most other states in the country.
As is the case with the rest of India, Nagaland also has a very poor degree of clean sources of energy for meeting cooking and heating requirements. Only 7 percent of Nagaland’s population has access to modern and relatively clean sources of energy for cooking and heating requirements.
The clean sources are Liquefied Petroleum Gas, Electricity and fuel energy from bio-gas plants. In effect, close to 93 percent of its population depends on firewood and other related sources of energy to meeting cooking and heating requirements. The table and figures in the table presents a comprehensive scenario of energy sources in rural households of Nagaland state.
Further, almost 95% of the households have access to personal assets and require electricity to operate them, according to a progress report about rural electrification prepared by Indian energy conservation organization Vasudha Foundation.
During 2011-2012 Nagaland faced shortage of electricity supply to the tune of 1 56 million units, which translates to a shortfall in supply in relation to the demand by 25.4 percent. The short fall in electricity supply to meet the peak electricity demand was around 39.9 percent in the same year. The trend is similar to those of previous years as well, the foundation stated.
The assessment of the Central Electricity Authority on the supply-versus-demand for electricity indicates that in some months, the gap between supply and demand in the state could be as high as 31 percent. The projection could potentially mean that the rural electricity supply in Nagaland would be affected to an even higher level than usual
