New Delhi: Recalling his childhood when he studied at night in the dim light of a kerosene lamp, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh lamented on Friday that many in the country "still live that life" -- without roads, electricity and drinking water.

"I spent the first 10 years of my life in a village that had no electricity, no drinking water supply, no doctor, no roads and no phones. I had to walk many miles to a school," he said from the ramparts of the Red Fort on the country's 62nd Independence Day.

"I had to study at night in the dim light of a kerosene lamp. After independence there has been considerable development in rural areas, yet many of our citizens still live a life that I lived in my childhood," he said. IANS