Jeep drives community project!

Chiranjit Parmar

The community development programme was launched in India soon after Independence. In Himachal Pradesh, it was started in a few selected districts in 1951-52, and Mandi happened to be one of those places. I used to be a school boy during those days. It was a new type of government programme and very few people knew about it. However, our family was aware of it because one of the officials of this programme was our tenant and he used to keep telling my father about it.

The programme was called the community project at that time. The Mandi project was headquartered at Bhangrotu, 13 km from Mandi. A farm as well as an orchard of the state agriculture department already existed at that place. It was probably because of this that the headquarters of the project was made at Bhangrotu.

Development blocks and Block Development Officers as organisational wings of this programme, as it is now, came into being much later. At that time, it used to be headed by a project officer. Mian Lal Singh, an officer from the revenue department, was assigned the responsibility of leading the Bhangrotu project. He was a resident of Dudar village near Mandi town. He was considered to be a tough master and a terror among his subordinates. He later retired as a Deputy Commissioner.

Mian Lal Singh had been provided a jeep for his work. Jeeps had just started coming to Himachal for government work and very few officers had one. Hence, the jeep was considered to be a status symbol.

Mian Lal Singh got ‘Community Project’ painted in bold white letters under the windscreen. This word was unfamiliar to ordinary people. Therefore, everyone wanted to know its meaning. Since Mandi was the district headquarters, the project officer or his colleagues had to visit Mandi almost daily in connection with government work, sometimes even more than once a day. Therefore, this jeep had become a common sight on the Mandi-Bhangrotu road.

Soon, recruitment of staff for vacant posts in the project also started. The interviews used to be held at the DC’s office at Mandi. One day, interviews were being held for the posts of gram sewak. The selection committee was chaired by the DC. One of the members asked a candidate, ‘What is a community project?’ The candidate immediately replied, ‘Sir, the community project is a jeep that runs between Mandi and Bhangrotu.’

The selection committee burst into laughter. The poor candidate could not understand what he had said that made these people laugh so loudly.

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