`Let There Be Light in Your Lives’: So Decided the DM for the Children

For decades, the children of Nagaur district of Rajasthan were studying in Government schools which had no electricity connection. But one man, District Magistrate Dr Jitendra Kumar Soni changed all this- as if with a magic wand- and today 90 percent schools are blessed with electricity. Such is the stupendous success of Dr Soni’s initiative that the State Government has decided to replicate it in the entire Rajasthan.

In an era where many of us can’t imagine our life without smart devices, many schools in Rajasthan’s interior region do not even have something as basic as electricity. More than 11 thousand schools of the state are facing this problem and its Nagaur district was no different. Here, the children were deprived of many facilities like fan, bulbs or computer labs etc. because of no electricity.

However, the District Magistrate and Collector of Nagaur, Dr. Jitendra Kumar Soni took exceptional measures to change the situation. For this, he started an initiative to “electrify’’ the government schools of Nagaur with the help of other officials & community members.

Dr. Soni started the initiative Ujaas to electrify more than 900 schools in Nagaur

And what spectacular success Dr Soni has achieved! Till now, thanks to his untiring efforts, 839 out of 910 unelectrified schools have now been electrified under the ‘Ujaas Abhiyaan’ programme. The rest will also be electrified within few weeks. This initiative by Mr. Soni has become talk of the town and he has been appreciated by many senior officials & leaders.

What is more,The Chief Secretary of Rajasthan Government, Mr Niranjan Arya has directed for replication of this initiative in all other districts of the state as well. Now, 11000 schools will be benefitted by this initiative.

How it all started ?

DR Soni is also a writer and a photographer by passion, and has a keen interest in working for children & education. In the past also he had come up with various schemes like `Charan Paduka’ for the benefit of students. It was last year in August that he got to know about the lack of electricity in so many schools of Nagaur.

Dr Soni took notice of such schools where there was no electricity and students were compelled to bear the scorching heat during the summer. After this, he made a roadmap to electrify the schools on priority basis. He ordered the officials to conduct a survey of the schools across the district. In the survey, it was found that there were 910 schools without electricity.

Thereafter, Dr. soni hold a meeting with the education department and Ajmer electricity distribution corporation officials and directed them to work on a mission mode. The mission was named `Abhiyaan Ujaas’. And till now, 817 Government schools out of 910 unelectrified schools have been electrified.

Children are the nation’s future

Speaking with Indian Masterminds about the initiative, Dr Soni said, “The Children are the future of our country and its not fair that they get their education in darkness. Electricity is a basic need in any school, because then only a computer lab or any such facilities can function. I am really thankful to all my fellow officers and people of Nagaur who came forward to support this initiative. But for their help, this would not have been possible at all.’’