Over 12 yrs after ex-PM’s visit, Wardha village sans amenities

Nagpur: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited this remote hamlet in 2006 along with then Union ministers — Sharad Pawar, Sushilkumar Shinde, Praful Patel, and minister in PMO Prithviraj Chavan — after over 1,600 farmers from Vidarbha committed suicide. He addressed a big rally at the local ZP school assuring a turnaround in the fortunes of aggrieved farmers, who were struggling with agrarian crisis.
Nearly 13 years later, hardly anything has changed in Waifad village in Wardha’s district even after the high-profile visit. Though no suicides were reported from the district in the last five years, other problems like severe shortage of water, absence of proper education and medical facilities and, of course, jobs for the youths, still persist, the villagers say.

Severe scarcity of water looms large on entire village with a population of about 3,500 as groundwater sources have already dried up. The villagers need to walk long distances to fetch water from wells in farms outside the village, which too are showing signs of drying as peak summer has already started. Not only Waifad, but entire area is staring at water issues and drought-like situation.

On Monday, PM Narendra Modi started his Lok Sabha election campaign in Maharashtra from Wardha by addressing a big rally at Swawlambi School ground. Some villagers from Waifad also attended it. However, villagers aren’t expecting much from Modi’s visit.

“Nothing has changed since Singh’s visit. These leaders arrive in village only when elections are around the corner and then conveniently forget us. Even the sitting MP Ramdas Tadas visited us only once in his tenure while former minister of state Ranjit Kamble met us a couple of times,” says Pravin Bhoyar, a farm labourer.

According to villagers, the problem of water scarcity would have been solved, if the government had routed Upper Wardha project’s canal passing from Rasilabad to Rotha from their village. “We had approached netas in this regard many a times, but all our prayers have fallen on deaf ears. Around 15 adjoining villages are reaping the benefits of canal. The leaders make tall promises, which never become reality,” an aggrieved villager Amit Ramteke, who survives on doing petty carpentry works, says.

Endorsing the sentiments, Satish Mohod says, the village is having about 10-12 handpumps but not even 50% are operational. “Most of them have dried up, while others need repairs,” Vijay Gaikwad says, complaining about absence of college imparting higher learning courses.

Unemployment is another major issue, as majority of youths don’t’ have jobs. Many of them have started plying autos to Wardha and nearby villages. “We don't have any other sources of income due to absence of industries. Even those which are running are into losses,” say Vinod Kale and Sunil Nikhar.

The village has a primary health centre where two doctors are appointed along with a nurse and a helper. In reality, villagers claim, the doctors are hardly available there and even medicines are in shortage for most of the times. “The nurses handle most of the treatment. During emergencies, we need to rush to Wardha as doctors skip duties often,” villagers claim. Even when TOI visited the PHC, only nurse was available while doctors were absent. She didn't answer queries posed to her on whereabouts of the doctors.

The village has only one bank — Bank of Baroda — but locals claim its officials often harass them even for small work and make them to run from pillar to post. Even government schemes like Ujjwala, aren’t explained properly to the villagers. “After first free cylinder, they stopped giving us subsidy on the second refill and now say that we lack documents to claim the new cylinder. Now, we’re forced to cook on chullah,” Vinod Gondane, a tribal, says.

The villagers though claim since the BJP government assumed power in 2014, they were getting benefits of various scheme launched by Modi and want him to be in the PM’s chair again.

Box:

No benefit for farm widow, who met ex-PM Singh

During his visit, Manmohan Singh met Sunanda Bomble, whose husband Gajanan was one of the farmers from Waifad committed suicide. Though she wasn’t at her small hut when TOI visited there, villagers say, she received about Rs1 lakh from Singh as compensation. “The amount didn’t help her much, but she somehow managed to complete education of her children. Now, both are earning and constructing a small home adjacent to their hut under PM Awas Yojana,” they say.