Tucked away in Konayangalli panchayat in Pennagaram, the village of Chikkanapatty Pudur, or C. Pudur, presents a tale of hope, marking a break from a barrage of stories on social ills.
Here, a group of youth runs a village club called Agni Siragugal (Wings of Fire), named after former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s autobiography. Agni Siragugal has begun making incremental impact on C. Pudur.
The first thing that strikes a visitor to the village are the CCTV cameras located at six junctions. A year-and-a-half ago, there had been chain-snatching bids at the village entrance. Similar incidents were reported in the nearby villages. It was then that Agni Siragugal decided to install CCTV cameras at the junctions leading into and out of the village.
“We reached out to our youth working in Bengaluru, and they sent money, no questions asked. The CCTV cameras were set up and a monitor to view the footage was kept in the school library, at a cost of ₹50,000,” says Anbalagan, secretary of Agni Siragugal. Today, the CCTVs have come to be of great use. “Occasionally, the Pennagaram police and people from neighbouring villages come down here to check our footage to track thefts,” he adds.
C. Pudur has always had a proactive village club, says M. Santhamoorthy, president of Agni Siragugal. “Earlier, it was called Nehru Mandram, and was run by seniors in the village. After A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s passing, we renamed it Agni Siragugal,” he adds.
The club has since spearheaded customary activities like blood donation, sapling plantation, etc. It’s ability to sustain those activities and make a tangible difference to the quality of life in the village has earned it its name.
The organisation subjects itself to a self-audit after each initiative.
This self-audit and fiscal prudence has earned Agni Siragugal the people’s trust. “We only need to make a request on our WhatsApp group, and our boys working in Bengaluru send us money,” Mr. Anbalagan adds.
Agni Siragugal has helped open 1,500 post office savings accounts. The village’s elementary school, which used to have only two teachers, now has three, one of whom is paid by the club. It had set up a library at an unused room in the school, dug a borewell for the village and installed garbage bins across the village, which are collected for segregation by the panchayat every week. The club also organises yoga and silambam classes. “We have a local Tamil postgraduate who teaches the children,” says Mr. Anbalagan.
For now, Agni Siragugal has taken up the desilting of a lake, and is all set to plant 150 saplings. Given the prevailing water scarcity, Agni Siragugal is proposing to construct a tank, fill it with purchased tanker water and carry out drip irrigation by constructing a small tank to irrigate the saplings, says Mr. Santhamoorthy. When asked if all communities are part of the club, he says, "There is no discrimination. We are all like brothers here."
In a fitting recognition of its work, Agni Siragugal had bagged a cash prize of ₹25,000 for the best community club in the district, and ₹1 lakh for the best club in the State.
