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Publication: MSN News
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URL: http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1123726
The village council office in this western
Gujarat hamlet tells a story. It's at the heart of the change visible through
much of the state. That is where Chief Minister Narendra Modi began chipping
away in his ambitious governance makeover.
"Before Modi's time, no one came here.
The building was in ruins; it didn't even have a door. No one cared for the
panchayat," said 20-year-old Charuda Bhikku Karamsi, showing off his
workplace in Shapar village.
Karamsi works part time for the panchayat.
He gets Rs 1,000 a month as a "gram mitra" (friend of the village),
one of four such positions in Shapar. His job is to inform people of the development
schemes they could gain from, and help them do the paperwork.
The innovations have many takers.
"The Congress wouldn't be able to do
in 50 years, the work that Modi has done for us in five years," declared
Rajesh Bohda, 39, the deputy village head of Shapar.
"The macro picture is marvellous. The
kind of rural prosperity here is remarkable," said professor Ravindra
Dholakia at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad. "Gujarat
is the only state in the country where inequality is declining, real agricultural
wages are rising, and rural employment is increasing."
Outside Gujarat, Modi carries the baggage
of the 2002 violence. But across villages in large parts of the state, that
barely seems to matter.
It began with rewards of Rs 1 lakh and more
for villages which would appoint its representatives unanimously. More than
2,800 of the state's 13,800-plus gram panchayats have received the reward.
Villages with no criminal cases and practices like female foeticide for three
consecutive years are separately honoured.
As one turns in from the highway and drives
to Shapar, about 40 km from Jamnagar, there are milestones that did not exist
before Modi.
The car whizzes on a wide metalled road, past
miles of green fields rich with irrigation water from small dams built by
village councils with people's participation. Two electricity lines run along
the road, one for irrigation, the other for homes. Earlier there was one bus
connecting the village to Jamnagar. Now there are six.
Shapar, where tankers brought water earlier,
now gets piped water, and every home has taps. There is a telephone exchange,
a 66 kilowatt power sub-station, two community centres, and a well-networked
sewage system. There is a primary school, and a high school is being built.
Teachers are coming to school, so dropout
rates have dipped. All schoolgirls get bicycles. There are streetlights, and
once every month, the village headman gets to talk on video conference directly
with the chief minister.
"I used to walk to the well in the rainy
season to get water. Now I get it at home, as much as I want," said Kashiben
Bhagwanjibhai, 55.
But all that came second for at least one
man. Vallabhbhai Boda, the former headman declared in his rustic baritone:
"Narendra Modi has brought luck with him to Gujarat, after all there
hasn't been a drought since he took office."
