Entrance to the high tech villae punsari, Gujrat
Featured India Odd Travel

The hi-tech Gujrat village Punsari

When we think of an Indian village it gives us an image of a filthy place with mooing cows, open drains and children playing ants and frog games. But, Punsari, a motley village in Himmatnagar, talks about wi-fi and optical fiber broadband network, its children spend best of their times in air-conditioned classrooms with CCTV cameras.The village also boasts of its own mini-bus transport system and there are 25-odd CCTVs located on important junctions to spot litterbugs which are not functioning in our metro towns.

The village manages to fund the projects just through central and state sponsored developmental schemes. Not a single rupee has come from across the seven seas or via NRI kids.

“The village panchayat pays an annual premium of Rs 25 lakh against insurance for each of the 6,000 villagers who have a cover of Rs 1 lakh and a mediclaim policy of Rs 25,000. Our schools have zero dropout rates, CCTV cameras in classrooms help us keep watch on teachers in classrooms. Our reverse osmosis plant supplies 20-litre cans to houses for a token cost of Rs 4. These are bare essentials for a standard life today and why should our village be behind,” claims the village sarpanch Hemant Patel, 29.

Entrance to the high tech villae punsari, Gujrat
Entrance to the high tech villae punsari, Gujrat

The village panchayat had a capital of Rs 25,000 five years ago. Today, the deposits have soared to Rs 75 lakh. “The turn-around happened when we sold part of our grazing land as plotted schemes to various communities. The money is deposited in government coffers,” says Patel. The village received rewards from the central government and the state governments recently.

District development officer Ravi Arora siad, “There is not a single family in Punsari which has an NRI family member. The village has just managed its accounts well and villagers here agreed on a co-operative approach to development.”

The village even has its own portal -> http://www.punsarigrampanchayat.in/

The village is sure an example for the Indian villages. With more than half of population still residing in villages if we convert each one with judicious use of resources and proper planning we could turn any village into the high-tech villages in any part of the country.

 

See the Tv9 exclusive on the village->

 

Comments

0 comments

4 Comments

Leave a Reply