Amarinder-adopted village pays for backing Congress

Saturday, 30/05/2015

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AMRITSAR: The decision of local Member of Parliament (MP) and former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh to adopt Dhaul Kalan village under the ‘Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana’ came as a God sent gift to the village residents.

Deputy commissioner Ravi Bhagat laying the foundation of a panchayat ghar at Dhaul Kalan village in Amritsar.

It is indeed a God sent gift as for around 10 years the residents have not seen even a brick being fixed in the lanes or streets of their village. That is why every family of the village, irrespective of its political affiliations, has appreciated the gesture of their MP.

As the village is Congress-dominated, local Akali politicians “ensured that the money for development did not reach there”. Since 2007, little or no state funds reached the village for development purposes.

Amarinder, while selecting the village had said, “I chose this village because it has suffered during the years of the SAD-BJP rule in the state. It was denied funds for the development by the government for a simple reason that local MLA Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria (of Raja Sansi constituency) and the village sarpanch belong to our party. The people here were punished for siding with the Congress.”

Such was the apathy of the ruling party leaders towards this village that even grants that were promised by chief minister Parkash Singh Badal during a ‘sangat darshan’ never reached here. Akali leaders of the Raja Sansi assembly segment, in which the village falls, thought that by denying grants they could change the political leanings of the residents, but they were mistaken as the residents continue to stand behind Sarkaria, their MLA and a former sarpanch of the village.

“Badal always speaks of step-motherly treatment by the Congress to Punjab. But for Dhaul Kalan village, Badal is the stepfather,” stated Sarkaria, who is the MLA from the Raja Sansi constituency for the second consecutive term. NO DEVELOPMENT AT ALL

Current sarpanch Dilraj Singh Sarkaria, a nephew of the MLA, is thankful to Amarinder for adopting his village. “The chief minister often denies any discrimination against villages in matter of disbursement of grants for development. But our village suffered, as the majority here votes for the Congress,” said Dilraj, while talking to Hindustan Times at his residence in the village.

A glaring example of discrimination that the sarpanch pointed out related to disbursement of grants released by the central government on the recommendations of the 13th Finance Commission. “Despite the grants having reached the office of the block development officer of Verka, not a penny was given to Dhaul Kalan,” said Dilraj.

Under the 13th Finance Commission every village in the country is allocated a certain amount for development, depending on its population. The money for this purpose is rooted via the state government and the deputy commissioner’s office to the block level. It is the block level officer who decides the allocation for each village, depending on size and population of villages. Dilraj stated: “In the past five years, every village in Verka block got these funds barring our village. Akali leaders of our area have specifically instructed the block officials not to disburse the money to us.”

However, the good news is that the block development and panchayat officer (BDPO) has agreed to release funds from the last installment of the 13th Finance Commission, which term has come to an end. An amount of `1.42 crore has been allocated to Verka block, and Sarkaria hopes that he will get around `5 lakh.

“Perhaps, we are getting the amount as our village has now been adopted for development by Amarinder,” stated the sarpanch. Sarkaria listed out a number of other problems of the village, including drainage of rain water and up-gradation of the middle school to senior secondary level. One such demand, that is, of a panchayat ghar was met on Wednesday with deputy commissioner Ravi Bhagat sanctioning an amount of `12 lakh.

Whatever little development was done in the past few years was out of the funds that the panchayat had collected by yearly auctioning of 21 acres of panchayat land. However the residents are now hoping for a change for the better.