After decades of darkness, Garpa Village finally sees light

Raipur: For generations in Garpa, sunset meant darkness — absolute, and often unsafe. Tucked deep inside Narayanpur's forests, nearly 40 km from the district headquarters, years of Left-wing extremism kept it beyond the grid. This week, 48 households saw a different kind of night. Electric bulbs glowed in their homes for the first time, turning a history of darkness into a moment of light.The change didn't come overnight. After Maoists were pushed back from the region, a state electrification team reached Garpa under the ‘Niyad Nellanar' scheme and completed work at a cost of Rs 55 lakh. Officials said crews navigated dense forests and rough tracks to bring power to the village. Locals say the first night with electric light was nothing less than a festival. "We had only imagined electricity and wondered if it would ever hit our village. Now we can see our homes lit up," said a tribal villager. Though under a govt scheme, solar panels were earlier installed as part of a pilot scheme, but the project couldn't take off due to threat and lack of maintenance. District collector Namrata Jain said that similar efforts are underway to bring power and other basic services to more remote villages in the district, signaling a broader push to bridge the development gap in the state's interior regions. For residents, the change is more than just electricity. Children can now study after sunset, access to healthcare is expected to improve, and small economic activities can begin taking shape.