Kalam leaves villagers mesmerised
Prabhjot Singh
Tribune News Service

Kharoudi (Hoshiarpur), March 23, 2005

A “delighted” President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam left hundreds of villagers mesmerised with his “inquisitiveness” and “simplicity” as the country’s first ever VIP village — Kharoudi — opened its arms to receive the Head of the State here this afternoon.

Here in the village, Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam turned out to be the “people’s own President” as he preferred to walk down the streets of the village, exchanging greetings and receiving flowers from both women and children of the village, stopping every now and then, making some inquiries, evincing a keen interest in various projects taken up scientifically here. It was his first visit to the state after assuming the country’s highest office.

He did not want his personal security to come between him and the people. Though his arrival was delayed by almost an hour, he made amends for it by spending almost 45 minutes, more than double the time of his scheduled stopover in the village.

The President in his brief address stressed on connectivity — physical connectivity through roads, electronic connectivity through telephones, knowledge connectivity through Internet and economic connectivity through scientific processing of foodgrains and milk — to usher in a new era of development by taking urban civic amenities to rural areas.

He said he was happy to see how the problems of sanitation, drinking water and sewage had been handled. “It was with the help of good-hearted NRIs that a programme of taking urban civic amenities to villages could materialise,” he said while congratulating all who have been involved in the project.

It was the first visit by any President to this small village, on the outskirts of Phagwara, which thanks to the Village Life Style Improvement Project initiated by a group of educated and professional NRIs has set in motion a new trend in “self-development”, focussing mainly on the provision of basic civic amenities.

“Delighted to visit the village. Excellent effort to make the village clean. My greetings to village members and great minds who love service”, wrote the President in the Visitors’ Book of the village after he had a quick round of the village and its various projects, including the sewage treatment plant, solar lights, solar water pump and concrete streets and pavements.

The President on his arrival was given a guard of honour at the village school where he witnessed a video of some of the innovative programmes under the project. When he was on his way to the sewage treatment plant and solar energy centre, village women and children showered flower petals on him and singing a welcome song in his honour as he posed for photographs with some and gave printed cards carrying his pictures and autographs to enthusiastic schoolchildren of the village.

Accompanying him were the Punjab Agriculture and Rural Development Minister, Mrs Rajinder Kaur Bhattal; Public Works Minister Partap Singh Bajwa, Health Minister R.C. Dogra and local MP, Charanjit Singh Channi. several senior bureaucrats, were also present.

Dr G.S. Gill, one of the pioneers of VIP project, told the President that out of Rs 68 lakh spent on the Village Life Improvement Project, Rs 50 lakh came from 31 NRIs who also helped in importing technology for the upgradation of civic amenities. Of the 250 households in the village, nearly 100 have one or more persons abroad.

Now each house in the village has piped water supply, flush latrine, sewer connection, solar street-lights, sewage treatment plant, concrete streets and pavements, besides a computer lab in the school, a park and a clock tower in the central park where names of all donors are inscribed. Mr Charanjit Singh Chani, MP, appreciated the lead taken by the NRIs and said that involving NGOs not only accelerates development works but also cuts off corruption part as is commonly witnessed in governmental works.

Mrs Bhattal presented a memento to the President who suggested to Dr G.S. Gill to start an Internet kiosk in the village.

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