BENGALURU: On Wednesday when the Karnataka energy department celebrated the 110th anniversary of electricity coming to Bengaluru - it was the first Indian city to get power supply -energy minister DK Shivakumar highlighted the state's achievements in the power sector and announced plans to provide 247 electricity supply to citizens.

The state also holds an embarrassing distinction: 39 of its village shamlets have no electricity. People here live without electric lamps, fans and streetlights.

Karnataka is the only southern state that has not achieved 100% electrification. According to documents available with TOI, 30 of the 39 unelectrified villages fall under the Hubli Electricity Supply Company (Hescom), eight under the Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Company (Cescom), and one under the Mangalore Electricity Supply Company (Mescom).

Recently, Union power minister Piyush Goyal said the states should look at alternative sources of energy to light up villages. So what's stopping the Karnataka energy department from supplying power supply to all villages?

"Problems are plenty," says a senior officer of the en ergy department. "Many of these villages are located in side forests and tough terrains where it's difficult to draw distribution lines There are no proper roads to reach there," he adds. For instance, Amadalli Machalli village in Karwar taluk of Uttara Kannada district is 18 km inside a forest. And it's not a regular village: a few houses are spread out on hillocks.Besides, the forest department doesn't allow us to cut trees for laying utilities," he pointed out.

Why is the department not looking at alternative sources of energy? The official said the government is working towards the same under the Centre's Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana. But there are challenges here as well.

"Even if we install solar panels, no private vendor will come forward to maintain them due to the long distance and rough terrains. If we think of using diesel generator sets, then there's the challenge of ensuring continuous supply of fuel. We are mulling over installing small hydel units near the streams close to these hamlets. But, before that, we want to prepare village-specific plans after consulting experts," the officer said.

How did other states, which face similar challenges, achieve the target? Another officer with the energy department said they came across these villages only after the 2011 census."Earlier, they were not considered villages at all. The votes of their residents were attached to nearby villages.There are chances of other states not including small hamlets as villages at all," the officer maintained.

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