All hopes dashed, say Jhajjar villagers

Ravinder Saini

Tribune News Service

Jhajjar, July 11

The Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) which focuses on rural development has turned out to be a “failure” in Islaamgarh village. No change for the better has been witnessed here in the past four years.

The villagers, as usual, are grappling with scarcity of potable water, non-availability of drainage system, long power cuts, lack of health services and traffic congestion.

Islaamgarh, which is popularly known as Chhuchhakvaas village, was adopted by Rohtak MP Deepender Hooda under SAGY in 2014.

The villagers were optimistic about the redress of their basic grievances following the adoption of the village, but their hopes have now been dashed utterly, said Ram Avtar, a farmer of the village.

“The village has not yet got any benefit of SAGY. We are still forced to buy potable water not only for us but also for our cattle as the government supply of water comes after three days and that too for a short time. Those who are capable of paying extra utilise the camper service to get drinking water,” he said.

Bhup Singh, another villager, said, “We pay Rs 250 per month to a private supplier for getting water to meet the daily requirement. Villagers purchase water for drinking from private tankers and pay Rs 10 per pitcher for that.”

Krishan said the absence of drainage system has led to the accumulation of dirty water in the streets causing inconvenience to passersby.

The two village ponds — Bohdiya and Khariya — are filled with dirt, forcing the villagers to use another pond located on the outskirts of the village to give their cattle a bath, he said.

Residents said that the village has a public health centre (PHC) but doctors come there occasionally. Mahipal, an ex-serviceman, said only nurses work there in the day. The villagers have to go to either Jhajjar or some private hospital in case of illness.

“Health Cards were issued to the villagers, but we are getting no benefit of those,” said a village youth.

A power sub-station has been set up in the village but long power cuts, especially in the day, continue to be the norm.

“Electricity is being supplied for one or two hours in the daytime. No development work has been undertaken in the village in the past four years except the replacement of a damaged pipeline of potable water. Farmers are struggling due to the non-availability of canal water for irrigation. We are demanding the extension of Maarot minor to our village, but no one pays any heed to it,” said Mahender, the village sarpanch.

Residents are also facing the problem of long traffic jams on the highways near the village. “On account of traffic jams, villagers think several times before going outside the village during the day,” said the sarpanch.

MP Deepender Hooda said he had got a project for the bypass approved from the NCR Planning Board to resolve the traffic problem. The previous Congress regime had sanctioned Rs 24 crore for it. The process of land acquisition was also started. But the BJP government not only cancelled the project but also paid no heed to his proposal — having 20 demands – that he had submitted to the district authority for overall development of the village under SAGY.