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I
came across some reports how the politicians
served their own villages when in power in
‘Metro India’. The stories related to Mulayam
Singh Yadav, Lalu Yadav and Nitish Kumar.
As reported, Nitish had been indifferent or
knowingly avoided doing anything special for his
own village till now. He could have certainly
done many things even as politician in his
earlier days with his influence and
acquaintances, or when he was an effective
cabinet minister in central government during
NDA rule.
The cabinet colleagues of Nitish are now falling
over each other to make up for Nitish’s neglect
and uplift the condition of Kalyanbigha, the
ancestral village of Nitish Kumar in Nalanda
district. Bihar’s various ministers have
promised an Industrial Training Institute (ITI),
an Rs 2-crore power substation in the village
and an Rs 35-crore grid station at Harnaut
nearby, a 12-bed state-of-the-art hospital and a
12- room government higher secondary school.
Road construction minister has promised to
convert the 8-km single lane road linking the
village to NH31 into a double lane.
Lalu had also done the same or a little more for
his village, Phulwaria and Rabri for Selar Kalan.
A 22-km road to Phulwaria from the district
headquarters got built that envied the
neighbouring villages. But as the climax, the
railway ministry has undertaken an ambitious
project to link both the villages through a rail
network on the Hathua-Bhatani section and the
last Railway budget provided a fund of RS 230
crore for the project. I feel amazed why the
system permits this. Should not there be
criteria clear enough to avoid such partisan
project?
However, all that Lalu had done is nothing in
comparison with what Mulayam did and wished to
do for Saifai, his village of 4000 people in
Etawah: an international-standard air-strip, a
500-bed super specialty hospital, a world class
flood-lit cricket stadium, an athletic stadium,
a lion safari, and an indoor stadium almost like
Talkatora of Delhi. Mulayam wanted a Boeing 747
to land at the airstrip. As usual, Mayawati has
shelved all the projects. But how can the money
already spent be justified? The airstrip has
sucked in Rs 100 crore of taxpayers’ money, and
the stadium Rs 50 crore.
I don’t find anything wrong with the basic
development work and wish everyone who can, must
do this as a minimum for his village. Every
legislator must get a high school, an Industrial
training Institute, a health care center, and
electrification for his village. The legislator
must use all the resources at his hand to
provide these facilities for his village or for
the villages of his mother or wife using the
fund that he gets every year. At least, it will
mean so many of the villages upgraded.
Anyone who succeeds in life must do something
for his own village where he was born and
brought up. I was shocked to read a story about
the village of Ambanis. Why the village wouldn’t
have been one with all facilities, particularly
professional schools for training skills to all
the boys and girls? Will the Ambanis be any way
poorer if they would invest in these facilities
for the people of the village?
However, the administrative reform must
eliminate the possibility of building a stadium
and international airport in some chief
minister’s or even prime minister’s village.
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Comments: |
I come
from a village which boasts of two
term MP. MP saheb comes (oops, came)
from very poor family. Recently, he
was caught in a sex-tape sting
operation. No points for guessing
ex-MP saheb is no longer poor owns
tens of acres of prime land in
Sitamarhi town where each kattha
gets sold out at around 4lakh. Ex-MP
saheb roams around in his own Safari
but if u are unfortunate enough to
live in that village then u will
have to brave ditch-ridden field in
name of road. It's no exaggeration
even Scorpio which has fairly good
clearance gets stuck on the middle
of the road because u bump into four
feet deep pit every 20-30 meters. I
so wish our MP saheb had got road
built for at least his own village.
- Anil Kumar - Dec. 11, 2007
In
contrast to the view presented in
the article and subsequently in the
comment sent, I strongly believe
that the village of a politician
should be developed through a
continuous overall "Development
Process" rather than a mere
workaround done on the particular
place. There is a difference between
a successful native and a "can do"
politician of a village.
A successful native must do
something for his/her village as a
tribute to the ancestors. However, a
political has got a different
responsibility altogether. Chief
minister per se is responsible for
the entire state and should always
be viewing the development in the
broader terms. MP/MLA may narrow
down to their respective
constituency/Assembly area so on and
so forth.
Hence if Chief Minister can do
something for his/her village,
he/she can do for the other villages
too. - Pushpesh Suman, Phoenix,
AZ, USA - Dec. 16, 2007 |
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