It's truly a festival of lights for some

Hyderabad: This Deepavali, light has entered the lives of hundreds of families living in the Ambedkar huts near the Mudfort in Secunderabad Cantonment area. These families had been living without power for the past few months.

In September, Deccan Chronicle reported the plight of the residents of the area, most of whom are daily wage labourers and sanitation workers, who had been refused legitimate electricity connections despite repeated pleas. It also highlighted that their children were forced to study by candlelight. Moved by the story, Hyderabad-based Premier Solar Systems Pvt. Ltd. distributed 550 solar study lamps and 20 solar street lights to them on Wednesday.

Surender Pal Singh, the Chairman of Premier Solar Systems Surender Pal Singh, his family, office staff, J. Ramakrishna, the Vice-President of the Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB), and others were present at the ocassion

Mr Singh and his wife Manju Saluja said that they had decided to help the poor children after reading about them in the Deccan Chronicle. The added that they had chosen Deepavali for the distribution of the lamps because it was the festival of lights. The study lamps costed Rs 600 each and the street lights costed Rs 10,000 each. The company has spent a total of Rs 6.5 lakh on this initiative. Premier Solar Systems has installed solar lighting in around 200 tribal hamlets in remote parts of TS, AP, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, over the past few years.

The Electricity Department refused to erect po-les and set up electricity meters because it claims that the land on which the huts are located is owned by the military. Minister K.T. Rama Rao has recently requested the SCB and the military authorities to relax the rules and install at least one meter for every ten houses.