Left in the dark: Western UP’s migrant workers lose light, faith with unmaintained solar panels

Aligarh/Bulandshahr: In a dusty brick kiln colony on the outskirts of Aligarh, 32-year-old migrant worker Kamal Singh stands beside a lifeless solar panel mounted on his hut.

“Yeh toh roshni ka sahara tha. Par ab pehle jaise nahi chalta. (This was our source of light. But now it doesn’t work like before,” he said.

Once a symbol of self-reliance that lit up his hut and powered a fan through scorching summers, the panel is now coated in grime, barely functioning — a casualty of lack of maintenance, guidance and rising air pollution.