By IANS,
Mewat : Jobless youngsters can be seen sitting and chatting at tea stalls, women washing clothes in dirty ponds, naked children playing in the dust with flies all around. Welcome to Mewat district in Haryana, just 30 km from Gurgaon, the country’s IT and MNC hub, which seeks basic amenities and not big poll promises.
As Haryana goes to poll Oct 13, people reeling under abject poverty in the region aspire and hope for just basic amenities from the new government.
“Even after 62 years of Independence, we don’t have water supply either for drinking or irrigation. No government, whether of the Congress or other parties has paid any attention to solve this problem. We want the new government to solve this problem,” Mohammad Sajid, 42, a resident of Sudaka village, told IANS.
Three assembly constituencies of Nuh, Ferozpur Jhirka and Punhana in the newly created Mewat district will go to poll Tuesday.
The district, formed in 2005 and headquartered in Nuh town, was earlier part of Faridabad constituency.
Paved roads are virtually non-existent, Here, the only mode of transport are archaic, decrepit jeeps. There are no job opportunities for youngsters and their frustration can be sensed easily.
“No one is bothered about this region. We have been getting promises for development. I am graduate, but have no job, so I am helping my father in whatever little land we have,” Mohammad Asif, 26-year-old resident of Badanga village told IANS.
The district, which was once represented by freedom fighter and the country’s first education minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad in 1957, has only two government degree colleges for a population of about a million.
The human development indices for the region are abysmal. The literacy rate in the district is 32.5 percent, nearly half of the the national average of 64 percent.
“There are innumerable problems here. Our girls have to walk miles to fetch drinking water. The government has been just paying lip service that they would improve the water, health and education facilities in the region,” Khair-un-Nisa, 45, a mother of four in village Golpuri, said.
Life in Mewat district is in complete contrast to the night life and sprawling mall culture in Gurgaon.
Electricity is available in Mewat for barely eight-10 hours a day.
Malaria, tuberculosis and other diseases are rampant. Almost every household has a patient. Al Alafiya Hospital – built with aid from the Sultan of Oman – is the only full-fledged hospital in the area. There are just seven community health centres in the entire district.
However, Altaf Hussain, contesting the assembly poll on the ruling Congress party ticket, told IANS: “This time all the promises will be turned into reality. Within six months we will solve the problem of drinking water, and in the next one or two years we will provide irrigation facilities to every village. Also, every step will be taken to improve the education and health structure.”