While India´s economy is growing at electric pace, Bihar´s is stagnant and shrinking. India is being hailed as the global economic hotspot, while it´s heart, Bihar, is a darkspot, literally so. Of the 14 major states of india, Bihar is probably the only one which does not generate any electricity of its own. We have two thermal power plants: both defunct and in need to serious repairs and revival. Our total generation is 50 MW against projected demand of 990 MW. Where else in the world would a population of more than 90 million would have only 50 MW generation capacity? Not even is sub-saharan Africa I guess. On the top of it, BSEB has the highest T&D losses among all state electricity boards of India; more than half of all electricity generated is lost in transmission and distribution.
Bihar´s per capita power consumption at 60 kwh/ year is one-sixth of the national average of 360 kwh/year and less than 10% of the per capita consumption in Punjab (861kwh/capita/year). Not surprising when only 6% households in the state have electricity connections. Even those households recieve extremely irregular power supply. In a recent survey in my hometown, Muzaffarpur, I found that all (yes, 100%) commercial enterprises in my sample depended on alternate power supply systems, most often diesel generators. I will write more on this in a later post. Even among households, most who could afford it, had it.
The situation is worse for rural Bihar. Only 18,217 of the 45,103 villages are electrified in the state. That means 3 out of five villages in the state have no electricity whatsoever. Worse, a large number of these villages were electrified and then became deelectrified again due to various reasons including lack of maintenance.
My calculations suggest that if I am supplementing BSEB power supply with a private power supplier, I would be paying anywheer between 6 to 12 rupees per unit of electricity. This amount is larger for small buyers.
The lack of power supply has enormous costs for farmers also. Bihar has one of the world´s richest reserves of fresh groundwater. Very few locations in the world have such an excellent combination of shallow fresh groundwater and fertile lands. Still our farmers severely underirrigate their crops. Reason: diesel is becoming costleir by the day and electricity is not available unlike in many other states where farmers get it for free or negligible costs. So, a crop that needs 3 irrigations gets just one or at best two. Result: yield that should be in the range of 5-6 tons hangs in the range of 2-3. Groundwater is available at 30 feet below surface in Bihar and 1200 feet in north gujarat. But effective cost of lifting one meter cube of groundwater is higher for a Bihari farmer than his Gujarati counterpart. Nature has been benign to us but not governments.
Electricity is a great facility for farmers. It is much cheaper than diesel even if power supply is not subsidized. As is the norm in indian power sector, users pay after the use, so it helps their working capital situation. Working capital unavailability and its very high cost (due to high interest rates charged by the village money lenders) is a big reason why farmers underuse essential inputs like fertilizers and irrigation even when they know that it could help in raising yields and income.
Massive investment in power sector is one of the biggest development needs of the energy starved Bihar. The investment should also focus on rural areas, particularly agriculture and agri-processing. Bihari farmers´ability to produce surplus depends critically on availability of affordable electricity. It is needed for boosting both basic food crops prodcution and capitalizing on horticulture and vegetable cultivation potential.
Current state government´s heart is in right place when it is making all efforts to invest in generation, distribution and rural electrification under various schemes. However, quality of power supply in rural areas is a function of not only supply but also that of demand. Cost of power supply to rural consumers is high because the use is small and scattered over a vast countryside leading to high line losses. Moreover, most of our potential rural users are poor with low paying capacity. Therefore, subsidy is needed. Bill collection is also poorer in the rural regions. Unless under strong political pressure from organized consumers lobby, SEBs tend to ignore power supply to rural areas. This neglect takes various forms: reduction in hours of power supply, no maintenance of the distribution system which results in reduction in quality of supply and eventually total or near total deelectrification. Rural areas of bihar and eastern UP have witnessed this trend in 1980s and 1990s. 18000 villages in combined Bihar that were connected to electricity in first place got deelectrified over time. The cycle can repeat itself if demand is not there.
Nobody denies that there is need for power in rural Bihar. But whether there is demand for it is the issue. Demand means need plus willingness to pay for it. The payment need not be in cash. Hard cash can be substituted by solid political organisation to ensure that subsidized (even free) electricity supply is mantained to rural areas. Farmers in all parts of india have ensured that except in BIMARU states and West Bengal. Farmers are so well organized on this issue that even strong chief ministers who are quite reform minded (like Modi in Gujarat and Naidu in AP) have failed to enforce pricing and substantial reduction of supplies to rural areas. Farmers in Bihar, like in other parts of India will also need subsidy and subsidised electricity never comes by itself. It has to be demanded with clear signals in terms of political repercussions for the party in rule if it fails to deliver it. This would mean that power becomes the key issue in elections and even before elections, the MLAs and other elected officials should feel the heat and pressurize the electricity board to mantain supplies, come what may. Will it happen in Bihar where identity politics dominates and caste calculations determine voting patterns?
