Chaheru (Kapurthala), January 6
It takes two to tango. Non-resident Indians think so, the Punjab government doesn’t.
The government, in starting a very public “wave of development” movement, said it would go fifity-fifty in sharing the expenses if NRIs chipped in to set up sewerage and piped-water supply facilities to change the face of its villages.
The government, seven years ago and some time before it bowed out of office, came up with the “Mera Pind” initiative under which it promised to invest 50 per cent of the amount invested by an NRI in his native village.
It didn’t stop at that and raised its share to 65 per cent. It now stands at a whopping 75 per cent.
Essentially, empty talk.
Consider this: The Indo-Canadian Village Improvement Trust (ICVIT) has taken up Chaheru and four other villages for sewerage and piped-water facilities besides other works by pooling in Rs 2.5 crore.
A fair beginning, you would say. Ask G. S. Gill, head of the ICVIT team, though. A renowned doctor and social worker, Gill says he is always asked thoughtless questions from government officials about when the work will be completed. There is no word on when concrete lids would be provided for the the sewer-laying work that has been completed.
Gill says he has spent Rs 45 lakh on the project, including NRI money and contributions from his society, but can do no more till the government releases its share of around Rs 80 lakh. “I submitted the accounts more than one month back”, he says.
Gill says he has finished the NRI share of the work in three other villages — Ratanda (Nawanshahr), Deingreian and Sahri (both in Hoshiarpur).
NRI commissioner Tejveer Singh says money for the scheme was being released in a “time-bound manner” and that Rs 40 lakh had
been released for Sahri village only today.
He says he has written to deputy commissioners to speed up clearance of projects after “due scrutiny”. “Some level of due diligence is required because government money is being spent,” he argues.
Gill is not convinced by such half-measures: “The government can fix standard norms for work done by NGOs. Under the current procedure, auditing and verification of work takes too long. The work in Chaheru can get further delayed if such a step is not taken in the next two months beacuse labour takes off for harvesting”.
The NRI doctor says the government should not make them feel as if a favour was being done to them. He said delays were discouraging NRIs from joining the scheme even though they were bringing in money, talent and expertise.
ICVIT has brought in Brazilian technology to lay sewers which is both cost-effective easy to run and maintain. It uses small pipes to drain out sewage outside of the village where either gravel or sand-filter technology is used to treat the
waste water to make it irrigation-friendly.
Sadly, the government does not appear to be that
friendly...
