A party - sans politics - does its village proud

By Asit Srivastava, Hathchoya (Uttar Pradesh), April 10: Fed up with the false assurances of politicians, this village decided to set up its own party to initiate development work. Within a year, Hathchoya boasts of schools, hand pumps, community centres and civic amenities.

The residents of this village in Muzaffarnagar district, some 350 km from state capital Lucknow, are proud of their very own Vikas Party.

"After suffering the apathy of politicians, we set up a non-political outfit - Vikas Party - around a year ago for the all-round development of the village," its founder member Anil Sharma told IANS.

"All local people have aligned themselves with the party and we no longer rely on legislators or MPs for the development of our village as we have already learnt how to progress without their assistance," added Sharma.

The Vikas Party undertakes work in the village through funds generated by residents. It represents about 15,000 people and has no political affiliations.

"Residents contribute in their own way to the party. While some donate cash, others provide agriculture produce to generate money," said Sunil Kaushik, another member of the party.

"Those who are economically weak offer their labour without charging anything."

Villagers under the banner of the Vikas Party meet every month at a public place to devise strategies.

In the last one year, with the funds generated by locals, the Vikas Party has set up two primary schools and two community centres, installed five hand pumps, constructed metalled roads and dug up drains and public toilets for improving sanitation in the village.

"We had been demanding all this for quite a long time from the politicians. But now we have made all the facilities available in our village by the dint of cooperation and hard work," said Tinai Paswan, a farmer in Hathchoya village.

Feedbacks are invited so that past schemes can be reviewed.

"On the basis of inputs given by villagers in the monthly meets, it is decided which developmental programme will be undertaken. The particular scheme is only approved after general consensus," said Kaushik.

(Asit Srivastava can be contacted at asit.s@ians.in)