HIMANGSHU PATEL: THE PANCHAYETI ENTREPRENEUR

Analjyoti Basu

16th November 2011 was a landmark for North Gujarat’s Talod Taluka’s Punsari village and its Sarpanch Himanshu Patel when then Chief Minister of Gujarat and present Prime Minister Shri Naredra Modi gave away the prize for state’s best performing Panchayat at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar. The award announced on 4th November fetched Punsari an award of ₹ 25 Lakh and another award for its young sarpanch, Himanshu Patel, who was feted as the best Sarpanch at district level. What was the prize and what are the achievements achieved by this village under Himanshu? To get the answer let’s know what was not there in this village when Himanshu Patel, 31-year-old graduate from North Gujarat University, won the panchayat polls in 2006, at the age of 23 and took charge of the village. In words of Himanshu “When I was elected sarpanch of the village in 2006 there was no sewerage connection, no street lights, no cemented roads and, of course, no source of income for the gram panchayat except the grants and funding from various state and Union government schemes. In consultation with the talati (the gram panchayat secretary) we decided to create a corpus for the village panchayat,” but in these 6 years from 2006 to 2011 what changes are made that helped this village to get the awards. Let’s get the glimpse of it. Population around 6000 (2011) and 1500 houses the village is having Wi-Fi and optical broadband network, Punsri has four primary schools and CCTV cameras are there in the classrooms. Work is going on to make all classes air conditioned. Also there are 25 CCTVs located on important junctions of the village. Moreover the village is having its own mini-bus transport system to ferry on clean RCC roads. Villagers can buy ticket of Re 1 to use the mini bus service. Special arrangements in these buses are made for the female students. For them bus service is completely free. Women come to deposit milk to milk bank couple of times during a day through this bus. A 35-seater bus was bought through 100% funding of the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA). RO water treatment is installed which supplies 20-litre cans to houses for a token cost of ₹.4. By investing ₹ 30 lakh reverse osmosis (RO) plant project a 20 liter jar of clean water for ₹. 6.00 is supplied to every doorstep of the village. At the same time it’s employing two youths of the village. This is not-for-profit project, but in social functions the charge is ₹ 20 per jar, which is the market rate. Set up by Panchayat the plant is run by village youths. What else, yes -gutter project, clean primary health care center, 8 kinder garden schools, banking facility, toll free complain receiving phone service, biometric machines among others. Those who pay tax (90% tax collection achieved) get gifts from the Panchayat in terms of plastic dustbins. Tractor visits each home to collect waste. Village panchayat has built a well-maintained and clean shopping center too in Punsri. What about direct Panchayat to public communication. For that Punsri has 120 loud-speakers, spending 4 lakhs and covering each corner of the village. Villagers listen to prabhatiya in the morning and bhajan and bhakti songs in the evening. Also important announcements like telephone bill, power bill, results of 10th and 12th are made through these speakers. Unique feature is that the village sarpanch can pass on any announcement from his mobile phone. Yes also totally modern concept introduced by Punsri is ‘asthi bank’. Pots containing ashes of all those cremated are taken to Haridwar once in a year to release in river Ganga. Next question will arise where the fund is coming from. Giving details, the talati of the village, Nanjibhai Parmar said, “We prepared a proposal to sell plots of village panchayat land to the villagers. We lobbied to get the proceeds of the sales from the state government and created a corpus of around ₹ 30 lakh. With this, we undertook developmental projects in the village.” Son and Grandson of sarpanchs of the same village, Himangshu Patel after taking power for next eight years, together with the district administration, accumulated funds from various heads – the District Planning Commission, Backward Regional Grant Fund, 12th Finance Commission, and those under Self Help Group Yojana began the development of the village. The results are in front of everybody. Recently, a team from the Central ministries of rural and urban development had come to study the “Punsari model”. But the young sarpanch is already onto his next projects – a unit producing electricity out of plastic waste and e-rickshaws for garbage collection. “The state government has already sanctioned ₹. 52 lakh,” he said. Here one thing is worth mentioning that, Mr. Patel has not asked for a penny from the MLA fund, and over the last eight years, the village has just got ₹. 1 lakh from the MP fund. “We didn’t feel the need, since there is enough from various budgetary grants of the state and Centre. If you utilize it properly, you can work wonders,” said Mr. Patel.”The village has demonstrated how understanding various schemes available and leveraging them properly can bring about a qualitative change,” said Himmatnagar collector Banchha Nidhi Pani.