Editor,
We wish to draw the attention of the state government, the Power Department, and the general public to the sheer negligence and administrative abandonment faced by the residents of Upper Borajan village in Kangku circle of Lower Siang district.
On 9 September, 2026, the electricity transformer serving Upper Borajan completely burned out.
Trusting the system, we informed the area linemen and waited for two days. When no one showed up, a village delegation comprising GPC members, PRI leaders, and gaon buras visited the electricity office in Likabali on 11 September to submit an urgent replacement application.
To our utter dismay, the junior engineer on duty casually informed us that it would take at least three months to replace the transformer. Instead of offering a departmental solution, he audaciously suggested that we take the damaged transformer to Silapathar, Assam, and manage the repairs ourselves.
Faced with this complete dereliction of duty, the villagers had no choice but to take matters into their own hands. Upon enquiring in Silapathar, we found that the repair would cost over Rs 20,000, excluding heavy transportation, loading, and mechanical labour costs. We collected Rs 500 from every household. Seeing our plight, the ZPM of Kangku circle, Jumken Bole, graciously donated Rs 10,000 to aid our efforts.
We are writing this today to inform the authorities that the villagers of Upper Borajan successfully repaired, transported, and installed the transformer on 12.09.2026 completely on our own, without a single ounce of technical or financial assistance from the Power Department. We have literally become engineers and labourers for a service the government is supposed to provide.
This entire ordeal forces us to ask a few pressing questions to the department and the state government:
First, will the Power Department now waive our electricity bills for the next few months? If the villagers are funding, transporting, and maintaining their own electrical infrastructure, on what grounds does the department charge us for the mere 5 to 6 hours of erratic power they supply daily?
Second, what is the logic behind the department's aggressive push to forcibly install prepaid electricity meters? How exactly are these prepaid meters supposed to function in a village where the department refuses to maintain the basic infrastructure required to supply power?
Third, where is our elected representative? The absolute lack of intervention during this crisis makes it painfully clear that the MLA of Likabali constituency has completely abandoned the people of Borajan.
Upper Borajan is surviving on its own. We are managing, funding, and sustaining our own public infrastructure. If the state refuses to provide us with essential services and leaves us to fend for ourselves, perhaps the government should stop collecting GST and other taxes from us entirely. Taxation without service is nothing but exploitation.
We hope the higher authorities will take immediate note of this departmental failure and ensure that no other village in Arunachal Pradesh has to fund and fix its own power grid.
Concerned citizens,
Upper Borajan village,
Kangku circle
