It all started when local landowners challenged the acquisition of their land at Guhagar taluka in Ratnagiri for the Enron project. The Mumbai High Court allowed the acquisition but directed DPC to construct a hospital for the benefit of the community. The ruling stipulated that the hospital would be run by the Maharashtra government although the finance for it would be provided by the DPC. However, it has now been decided that a public charitable trust will be formed to oversee its upkeep.

The hospital equipment is being installed by a team of doctors from Pune's Sanjeevani Trust. A blood bank shall form part of the facilities. Local villagers will be trained and employed as wardboys, ayahs andmaintenance assistants.

The villagers who shall avail of the hospital facilities have been classified into two groups. Those living within Guhagar taluka form Group I, and they will get access to medical aid at government rates. They will be provided identity cards. Villagers from the surrounding areas, identified as Group II, will have to pay certain additional charges to access these facilities. At present the residents of Guhagar are being serviced by DPC's mobile medical van, which sees about 100 patients a day.

The infrastructure for the school, which is situated nearby, has been readied. But institute is yet to begin functioning because the Maharashtra government, which will run it, has yet to work on the administrative details, and recruit staff. In fact, the government lately suggested that the school be converted into a Navodaya residential educational institute, which would provide hostel facilities as well. But the construction of a hostel building would require more land--and more time. Andsince the school is essentially meant to be of service to the local community, one wonders at the need for hostel facilities.

The industrial training institute, which is part of the services DPC is set to provide the residents of Guhagar, will offer vocational training to local villagers keen on taking up skilled jobs in the surrounding industrial area. Computer courses, electrician training programmes and English speaking classes are already being conducted.

It is obvious that although its power project is well on track, the DPC has not forgotten the protests it initially evoked all over India, in Maharashtra in particular. And irrespective of whether the resentment was spontaneous or a result of political instigation, the people of Guhagar are taking their time to respond to DPC's overtures. Which is why the hospital will not be named after the DPC. DPC will probably decide on a name that has some kind of local significance. At any rate, it does look like trying to realise its motto: Power to thepeople.