Delay mars projects at Sarangpur

Ishrat S Banwait

Tribune news Service

Chandigarh, July 14

Adopted by Chandigarh MP Kirron Kher in 2014, Sarangpur village is spread on 673 acres and has a population of 5,500. Moreover, it seems to be a village of foundation stones. A large number of ambitious projects have been announced for it.

While foundation stones of three of the projects are hardly visible due to a dense forest around the village, one of these can be seen at the village dispensary, which was inaugurated by Kirron in May last year but remains non-functional as there is no doctor. The dispensary was equipped with costly furniture and an X-ray machine, which is used as a platform to keep the construction material.

Sports stadium: Residents feel though their MP announced various projects besides providing adequate funds, the administration was not taking the projects seriously. For an instance, a sports stadium was to be inaugurated in January last year. As of now, one can only see a piece of land dug up in front of an anganwadi centre. While the anganwadi workers refer to it as a playground, it is a cause for concern as children can injure themselves while playing their due to deep pits.

About the pending projects, Block Development Officer Sunder Lal said, “The villagers had demanded 17 projects, of which 13 have been completed. The remaining projects will be completed soon.”

Educational facilities

The village has two government schools—a high school and a senior secondary school. Both schools are surrounded by the forest and residents often deal with snakes and monkeys on a daily basis due to it. The walls of the high school aren’t high enough and students of the senior secondary school can be seen playing in the the forest and eating fruits after school hours.

Veterinary sub-centre

The another building that was inaugurated by Kher is of a veterinary sub-centre, which has received only six cases so far. The reason is the absence of a permanent doctor and proper infrastructure. A visiting doctor comes to the centre for a couple of hours daily and sits in a room where even the chair is donated by the village. The villagers own 400 animals and get medicines from Sector 24.

Other basic necessities

Some of the residents blamed migrants for the lack of cleanliness in the village. Migrants constitute 25 per cent of the total population. As the population of the village is on the rise, the two tube wells installed at the village are not enough to meet the water demand. Village sarpanch Sadhu Singh claimed to have contacted the authorities a number of times for the redressal of their grievances who, according to him, only assure them to solve all of their problems. The electricity infrastructure is also old. An electricity pole, made of iron, had to be re-made with cement by the villagers themselves.