MOHANLALGANJ (Lucknow): “Kamaal hui gawa,” exclaimed 58-year-old Nankau Lodhi , as he excitedly pulled out a black and white TV that lay buried under a heap of clothes and paper in a trunk. After all, it was time to finally switch it on.

The TV had not been used for years since Lodhi’s son, who lives in a city, had discarded it as there was no electricity in Lodhi’s Sheetalkhera village, which is barely 25km from Lucknow.

In October, Sheetalkhera finally became one of hundreds of villages across the country that has been provided electricity for the first time since independence.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s referred to this rural electrification drive at a function in Delhi on Friday and said the Centre electrified over 3,000 villages against a target of 1,900 in first 100 days of his rule.

The electrification promises to radically change lives of Sheetalkhera’s around 500 residents.

For Shanti Devi, it means her son can study anytime he wants. “Now he can study in the night as well.’’

Nankai (56), another resident, echoed her. She said days of lanterns were over and now her grandchildren would not have any problems in studying after sunset.

Pradeep Kumar, a teacher, said electrification would help students get those crucial extra hours to study. “Till now, they had no other option but to study before sunset or very early in the morning.’’

Housewife Ruby was dusting her refrigerator, which was gifted to her 10 years back but was of no use to her till now. She had come to the village after getting married.

“Initially, it took me some time to adjust with powerless atmosphere, but now things have really changed for good.’’

Ravi Rajput, a student, said he has grown up seeing his mother and grandmother using hand fans throughout the day.

Electrification had eluded residents so long that they did not believe things could change even after overhead lines were put in place and a transformer was installed.

“There are so many villages where such works have been done but they never got electricity. That way we are lucky,'' said Janki Ram, a resident.

Lodhi said he was sure they would get continuous power supply and now he even plans to buy an LCD TV.

Local MLA Chandra Rawat had inaugurated electricity in the village by switching a bulb at Mata Prasad’s residence in Sheetlakhera about two months back.

“I could see the happiness on the face of Mata Prasad’s family. Before this, they had to go to neighbouring market for even basic things like charging mobiles.’’

Madhyanchal distribution company managing director Shamim Ahmad said rural electrification was an ongoing process under Deen Dayal Updhyay scheme .

He said they had a target of electrifying 20,000 villages with a population of not less than 100 under the 11 plan starting 2013.

“Of that, we have electrified nearly 9,000,'' he said. Ahmad said other villages would be provided electricity in next three years.

Around 10,000 villages are yet to be electrified in Uttar Pradesh, which goes to the polls next year.

The state government has promised to increase power supply in rural areas by the end of 2016 as the opposition has been raking up the issue of poor electricity situation.