- People drink water by bringing it from river or other natural sources.
- Development of Adarsh Gram limited only till the meeting of officials
- There was only talk of development, no work could be done on the ground
Jamui News: Dahiyari Panchayat and its Batiya village, located at the southern end, about 15 kilometers from the block headquarters, is backward in terms of development. Many villages of the Panchayat are deprived of basic facilities like roads, electricity and water. When Dahiyari Panchayat and Batia were adopted as Model Village, there was no limit to the happiness of the people here. After its adoption as Model Village, meetings of all the officials including the District Magistrate started being held in Batia. The enthusiasm of the villagers was at its peak. But with the passage of time, the villagers’ enthusiasm started waning when they found that even after the announcements, the picture of their Panchayat regarding development could not change. The dreams of the people here who were expecting a lot of development were shattered. In fact, for a long time only meetings of officials were held and in the name of work, schemes were selected only on paper. When it came to implementing those works on the ground, many obstacles started appearing. In this journey of almost a decade, some work was definitely done, but it was much less than expected. Neither the storm of development was seen in the Panchayat nor there was any fundamental change in the lives of the Panchayat residents. Many villages dominated by backward castes like Adivasis and Mahadalits are still far away from the light of development.
Many villages do not have roads and are also deprived of electricity.
Even today the road does not reach many villages of Dahiyari Panchayat. Many villages are deprived of electricity. The people of the village are still forced to survive by bringing wood and leaves from the forest. There is also a village here where people quench their thirst by bringing water from Joria. Village people are suffering from lack of pure drinking water and health services are failing in many places. Even today Dahiyari Panchayat could not be free from malaria. There is a severe lack of facilities in the temple premises due to which Baba Jhumraj Temple became Batia Model Village. The problem of filth is still huge. Amidst the inconvenience and bad smell, thousands of devotees leave here every week with bad experiences. Now that Lok Sabha elections are round the corner, big promises of development will be made again here too. But people believe that they are just cheated. Despite this, the people here are still hopeful from the government that maybe their problems will be resolved and the light of development will be brought here.
Why did Dahiyari’s entire development program flop?
When Dahiyari was selected as the Adarsh Gram Panchayat, the only amount of Rs 50,000 allotted for this scheme was wasted on the expenses of various meetings. A survey was conducted by the PMF team of the Center for necessary development schemes in the entire Dahiyari Panchayat. The report of the necessary development work was submitted by the PMF to the then District Magistrate. When there was talk of starting the development work on the basis of this report, the officials started peeping at the bungalows. In fact, everyone from the public representative to the district officer felt that separate funds would come for Adarsh Gram. The officials kept waiting for this for a long time. Later, when they came to know that no separate fund would come for the development of Adarsh Gram, the enthusiasm of the officials also lost. When the education department started improving schools, two-three water towers were installed by the PHED department. Efforts were started by the Industry Department and the Cow Department regarding cow rearing and milk cooling stores. But all these efforts were also not completely successful. At some places water towers were built, while at some places boring was done for solar mini plant for water, which later proved to be an elephant’s tusk. Two years after the announcement, an amount of about Rs 46 lakh was given from the MP fund for development work in Batia. With this amount, a concrete ghat was constructed on the banks of river Jhanjhi near the temple and a changing room for women was constructed near the ghat. But due to lack of maintenance its usefulness has not been achieved till date. Apart from this, construction of a community building at Heth Batia, boundary of the middle school at Batia, construction of a paved road from the main road to Giddhidih, etc., were some of the works which proved to be a win-win situation.
There is severe lack of facilities in the famous Baba Jhumraj temple located in Batia.
The famous Baba Jhumraj temple located in Batia was the inspiration for selecting Batia as the model village. There is severe lack of facilities in the same temple. Neither the administration nor the temple management committee provides facilities for the large crowd of devotees who come to worship and eat prasad during Bali Puja, which is held three days a week. There is neither provision of pure drinking water nor provision of toilets and other toilet facilities for the same devotees who earn lakhs of rupees of income every day. Women who come for puja have to face a lot of problems. Devotees are forced to eat Prasad amidst heaps of filth. The river located near the temple is losing its existence. There is so much dirt in the water that hardly anyone can take bath. Due to lack of proper parking system, vehicles have to stop on the roadside here and there, despite paying fees. This often causes jam problems. Due to lack of proper arrangement for drinking water, people coming here either buy water and drink it or fall ill after drinking dirty water. There is a huge lack of facilities in view of the pace at which the crowd and income in the temple have increased in recent years.
At some places there is lack of electricity and water, at other places there are no roads and schools.
Dahiyari Panchayat has always been backward. This tribal dominated area situated in the forests and foothills of the mountains is far away from development. At some places there is lack of roads, electricity and water, at other places there are no roads and schools. Till date, electricity has not reached villages of tribal community like Sanatari, Ukhariya and Meghamaran having 15 to 20 houses. There is neither a roofed platform nor a community hall here. As soon as summer arrives, the well dries up and when the hand pump fails, the people here quench their thirst by digging a well and extracting water from it. The children here go to school located four kilometers away. There is neither road facility nor proper water system here. Small villages like Khanjar, Maneria, Pindari, Kuraba are also far away from basic facilities. There is no government building in Khanjar village which has about 25 houses. Due to lack of culvert on Jhanjhi river outside the village, road has not been built inside the village. The school is in another village two and a half kilometers away. The tap water scheme has also failed in these villages facing water problem. Sarpanch and Panchayat Samiti member are from Khaira Lebad village. The development situation of that village is also not better. If the tap water scheme fails then even better roads are not available. The toilets built to free people from open defecation have become useless due to lack of water and have become ruins. Due to lack of employment problem, even today people of these villages bring leaves and wood from the forest and sell them. The future of the children of these villages also does not look bright. Many villagers including Asanatari resident Shyamlal Marandi, Meena Kisku, Chutki Besra, Chhote Lal Murmu, Shiv Lal Tuddu, Lalita Murmu, Sarita Soren, Budhan Murmu, Talo Murmu say that there is neither electricity, nor road, nor school in their village. Nor is there any provision for drinking water. They are forced to fetch water from rivers and other natural sources.
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