UT villages witness a sea change in their profile

Rajinder Nagarkoti

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 2

With the profile of villages in Chandigarh having undergone a sea change as per the reports of the Socio-Economic and Caste Census, (SECC), 2011, and Census-2011, the Chandigarh Administration will take a call on the merger of 13 villages, that fall under its jurisdiction, in the Municipal Corporation tomorrow. 

UT Deputy Commissioner Ajit Balaji Joshi has called a meeting of MC officials, panchayat officials and officials of the Estate Office tomorrow to take a call on the merger of the villages in the MC.  

The repots of Census-2011 and the SECC, 2011, will also be discussed at the meeting. According to the SECC report, which was released by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley this year, villages in Chandigarh have topped the country in terms of percentage of mobile connections in the rural area. However, it ranks at the bottom in the country in terms of income from cultivation.

While the report reveals that 27.93 per cent households in rural India are without any phone connection, Chandigarh recorded 91.61 per cent households with mobile phones, the highest in the country in terms of percentage.

The city rural area has 15,657 households, of which 14,344 houses (91.61 per cent) have mobile connections, 7,373 (47.09 per cent) houses have refrigerators and 36 houses (0.23 per cent) have only landline connections.

In terms of the source of income of villagers, the city rural area ranks at the bottom. According to the report, of the 15,716 households in the villages, only 211 households (1.35 per cent) are involved in cultivation, the lowest in the country.

Besides, 17.29 per cent of the population is involved in casual labour, 6.66 per cent in domestic service, 0.34 per cent in rag picking and 2.89 per cent in business not related to agriculture for their source of income. As far as literacy is concerned, 28.39 per cent are illiterate.

Only 6 villages rural: Census

In November 2013, a note was put up by the Local Bodies Department to the UT Adviser, which stated, “In the Census-2011, the number of villages which remain rural is six — Kaimbwala, Sarangpur, Dhanas, Makhan Majra, Raipur Khurd and Raipur Kalan.”