G S Asgotra
Early Times Report
Jammu, July 4: Contrary to claims made by Ministry of Rural Development and Panchyati Raj, Abdul Haq Khan on the floor of Assembly just few days back that 59 villages of Jammu region had been upgraded to Model Villages (MVs), four villages of district Kathua have been developed in paper only and continue to be 'backward' in records.
Source in department informed Early Times that in financial year 2004-05, then Rural Development Minister, Babu Singh had sanctioned eight model villages to Kathua district under Prime Minister Reconstruction Programme (PMRS), but ironically out of eight model village, four villages are still 'backward' after lapse of 12 years from the announcement and lack basic amenities like electricity, potable water and playground, CFC, and Community Hall proposed under this ambitious scheme.
"Two model villages-Barwal and Kharote falling under the Blocks Barnoti and Kathua, are still deprived of the Shopping Complex which was proposed in the scheme", they said.
They alleged that the officials of Rural Development Department have arbitrarily changed the proposed plan of model villages and not constructed the shopping complex in these villages.
"One village of Block Marheen, where the Community Centre and Shopping Complex have been constructed under the ambitious scheme PMRP, are under illegal possession of influential local people, and the department concerned has been failed to retrieve the building from the encroacher, adding that however, the Panchayat Committee, Changi has repeatedly apprised to Block Development Officer (BDO), Marheen to hand over the constructed building to Panchayat, but they become a mute spectator over it after lapse of many years", said Sarpanch Ravi of Changi Panchyat.
When contacted , Sarpanch Mahanpur, Gain Chand said the callous approach of the department could be gauged from the fact that that though, the construction work of CFC and shopping complex building has been completed few years back, but due to lackadaisical approach of the department concerned the buildings remained unutilized.
It is pertinent to mention here that under the PMRP scheme, one village in each rural block has been taken up under this scheme Rs. 120 Lakhs allocated to each model village for the infrastructure development, but after lapse of a decade, these model villages still lack facilities. |
