This is what the poorest in India want. The rest is all hot air:
District Zero: She folds the Indian flag and unfolds her dream
But Nabarangpur is also District Zero. On all key indicators, it sits at the bottom of the development barrel with a literacy rate of 46.43 per cent (the national average is 74.04 per cent); approximately one government doctor for 27,000 people; 1,667 hamlets without electricity (only 12.6 per cent households use electricity as the source of lighting, against the national average of 67.2 per cent); no government college; and, not one railway line.
What really matters here is not the Parliament washout or the Pakistani terrorist but what most of the rest of India take for granted every day — a doctor, electricity, Internet connectivity.
“There were gaps until the fifth five-year-plan (1974-79), because the government policy earlier was to preserve the way of life of tribals. This affected certain development aspects, particularly in health and education. But now, the people themselves are demanding change,” he said.
After explaining how life was miserable without electricity, he walked up to the jeep to say goodbye, then stretched out his right hand, palm open, as if he was seeking alms. His eyes filling up, he said, “Humein current de do, hum aapka naam har din yaad karenge (Please give us electricity, we will remember you every day).”
Seeking a connection
If Jinu needs electricity, Tularam Majhi, a school teacher, wants a doctor at the health centre near his village, Deepti Baidya wants better facilities for higher education, Simanchal Bisoyi, a paddy farmer, hopes for a “strong” Internet signal for his BSNL connection, and U C Mishra, the ITI college principal, demands jobs for his students.
Asked to make a wishlist, Majhi said: “We need industries, a railway project, an engineering college, a dam on the Tel river up north for which a survey report has been completed. I can go on and on.”
Until then, there is “no doubt in my mind that Nabarangpur will remain the poorest district in India”.
Back at the Biju Patnaik (ST) College for Women in Umerkote, Deepti carefully places the national flag inside the cupboard. She has a wishlist, too: “I want tap water in my home so that I don’t have walk all the way to the tubewell every day, I want a pucca road in my village, I want a good job.”
No electricity in a state that has huge reserves of coal.
All this "preservation of tribal way of life" is cr@p as the tribals themselves now want electricity, jobs, schools, roads, hospitals.
Plants like POSCO, Mittal, Vedanta etc would have spawned a huge number of indstries and jobs downstream. But 10 years of UPA killed all those prospects.
And this noise over "saving the farmers' land" is also BS. If properly communicated, the marginal farmers will gladly sell their land for infrastructure and jobs.
