Dry agricultural land, juxtaposed with the Ramganga river flowing by, marks the tragedy of Lambagar — a village where agricultural land awaits irrigation, houses await electricity, and the villagers await roads.
A gram panchayat comprising 20 hamlets, Lambagar in Uttarakhand’s hill district of Chamoli has been adopted by Raj Babbar, Rajya Sabha member from Uttarakhand, under the Centre’s ‘Sansad Aadarsh Gram Yojna’ (SAGY).
With 270 families and a population of over 1,100, Lambagar awaits development works as much as it awaits Mr. Babbar’s maiden visit to the village.
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At the entrance of the village from where a bridle path carved through the hill branches out to the hamlets under the gram panchayat, is an information board flashing the projects proposed under the SAGY.
Among the “proposed schemes” mentioned on the information board are a motorable road, a protection wall in the primary school, repair of an irrigation canal, construction of check dams to stop the sinking of land, a wall for protection against wild animals, electrification of hamlets, and repair of drinking water pipelines.
Pointing at the information board, Madan Singh, an 87-year-old retired Army man from the village, said, “The information board is a façade. In the past two years, not one of the proposals has been attended to… We’ve been fooled.”
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Gopal Singh, a Class-12 student from the Panchayat’s Lamdegadh village whose house is 8 km from the nearest motorable road, said, “We have purchased solar lamps since there is no electricity in our hamlet. We use the lamps for performing the daily chores.”
The village was first adopted under the SAGY by Congress Rajya Sabha member Manorama Dobriyal Sharma. After her death in February 2015, as Mr. Babbar replaced Sharma in the Rajya Sabha, he promised to fulfil the tasks that Sharma had undertaken. Lambagar being developed into a model village was one such task.
However, while Mr. Babbar, being president of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee, is busy handling the party works in U.P., he appointed one M.S. Negi as his representative in the village.
Speaking with The Hindu , Mr. Negi blamed the Chamoli district authorities for the delay in the SAGY works. “The district authorities are responsible for the delay in works… Even after several meetings with the authorities, the baseline survey of the village has not been done yet, without which no work can be initiated under the SAGY,” Mr. Negi said blaming the Chamoli district authorities.
Just the money
However, when the negligence was brought to Mr. Babbar’s notice he said he had taken monetary steps for the village’s welfare. “I have already sent Rs. 3 crore for the village,” he said to The Hindu . With the Uttarakhand and U.P. elections approaching, as the political activities gain pace, the list of development-related announcements by the party leaders grows longer. Falling in line with the current political activity is Mr Babbar’s much-awaited maiden visit to Lambagar.
Mr Babbar, acknowledging the delay in the visit had said that he would visit the village soon. The visit is tentatively scheduled for Monday, December 26, Mr. Negi said.
With the polls approaching and the model code of conduct to be imposed soon in Uttarakhand, the visit could serve no more than a customary pre-poll activity bearing little difference to the current situation at Lambagar.