“This is our own little Prayagraj,” laughs Pramila Pal. Her sarcastic allusion to the Sangam, the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati, is aimed at the huge pool of mud and slush formed at her door because of drain water running from different directions.
“We face a lot of problems in moving about. But it becomes most embarrassing when we have visitors,” says Ms. Pal, who belongs to an OBC (Other Backward Class) community. She lives in Jaitwardih, a village roughly three kilometres from the banks of the Ganga in the Phaphamau region of Allahabad.
While residents remember the village as always being bereft of civic amenities and basic infrastructure, their grouse is that there have been no real improvements despite its adoption as as a ‘model village’ after the Narendra Modi government came to power in 2014. Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, who adopted the village, was the local MP till last year and the upcoming bypoll on March 11 is to elect his successor.
Barring a few patches, most of the roads and gullies in the village are kuccha, uneven and in a decrepit state, marked by overflowing drains.
Lone development
The lone development that has taken place in the village since it was adopted was the installation of toilets, says Magru Yadav, a resident.
Sachin Yadav, a property dealer, complains that Mr. Maurya never paid heed to the civic issues nor delivered on constructing the promised pathways.
Locals also say that while the power supply is satisfactory, water supply in the village is irregular.
A few blocks away, in the Jatav locality, Kanchan Bharatiya says the village “urgently needs a colony to come up as most of its residents were still living in mud houses.”
Another issue facing the village is that of security. The solar lights in the local Sulabh complex were recently stolen.
Mahavir Yadav, the pradhan, says the poor roads and the absence of a good drainage system are the bane of the village. He, however, says that a water tank, one Sulabh toilet complex and 92 electric panels have come up in the village after Mr. Maurya adopted it.
Mr. Keshav Prasad Maurya was not available for comment.
