Electricity has become indispensable for us. It lights our homes and streets, our schools and offices. It runs our factories and mills. In winter, it heats our rooms while in summer it works our fans, coolers, and air-conditioners. It is a sort of handmaid to us. It cools our food, irons our clothes, dusts off our carpets, and does a number of odd jobs for us. It can even transmit our messages from one part of the world to another in a moment by means of the telegraph. The telephone and the radio which have become an essential part of our lives also work with electricity. There is hardly a field of human activity in which it does not work. We are now so much dependent on it that it is impossible to imagine our existence without electricity.
If electricity fails what will happen? Lights will go off and our houses will plunge into darkness. We may light our candles or lanterns but they are hardly any substitute for electric light. We cannot do any work. How we wish the light to be restored!
If electricity fails, our fans will stop working. The refrigerators will go off. The rooms will become intolerably hot. We will begin to perspire. It will be a hell of summer. In winter, our heaters and geysers will stop working and we shall shiver with cold.
If electricity fails, our factories and mills will come to a standstill, workers will be thrown out of work, unemployment will increase, production will come to a standstill, and the prices of commodities will rise. All these shall cause a great loss to the country.
If electricity fails, there will be acute water famine in the city. All sources of water supply will stop working. There will be no water in the waterworks. People will have to run to the wells to get the supply. There will be long queues on the wells resulting in clashes. In the countryside where there is electricity, there are tube wells which work with it. If electricity fails, it will be impossible to get a sufficient supply of water to irrigate the land. This will have an adverse effect on production. The food problem will become more acuter than ever.
If electricity fails, work in the offices will stop, X-ray and electric treatment in hospitals will be impossible and then patients will be put to great difficulty. Cinemas will stop and even radios and television sets will remain silent, and life will be disturbed everywhere.
Efforts are made to see that it does not fail. Large dams and river valley projects are being built and powerhouses are being constructed. Crores of takes are being spent to import the most modern machinery for generating electricity. It is hoped that all possible measures will be taken to see that it does not fail.
