100 days on, development a non-starter in UID’s first stop

Nearly 100 days after the nondescript Tembhali in Nandurbar district was swamped with promises of development, nothing has changed for the better in the tribal village.

For over a week in September, the tribal village basked in public and official attention. Prime minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi landed to launch the ambitious Unique Identity (UID) card — Aadhaar — project amid great fanfare. Great promises to improve the quality of life of the villagers followed.

Nothing has moved off the ground more than three months on. More than 40 of the 274 families have migrated to Gujarat in search of work. The authorities have failed to complete the concretisation of roads and most of the projects around the village are lying incomplete as jobs have dried up under the employment guarantee scheme (EGS).

Just before the arrival of the prime minister and Sonia Gandhi, the official machinery had gone into overdrive to make Tembhali presentable. They had even called back the migrant villagers to the village to collect their UID cards.

The government had opened 1,400 accounts for the villagers in Bank of India.
All the accounts show zero balance. There has been no transaction as no money has been deposited.

“It’s like a movie. The government authorities showed how hard they worked for us in front of the prime minister. Once he returned, all commitments were forgotten,’’ said Subhash Sonavane, a committee member of the Tembhali gram panchayat. He had received the village’s first landline just before the dignitaries arrived.

“They assured us that every villager would get a home under a government scheme but the promise has not been fulfilled. They also assured us about allotment of land; it’s not done yet,” he added.

The UID has left him disappointed. “We thought after getting the card we do not need to search for a daily job. But that has not happened. People go to Gujarat for jobs, their children follow them. The government officers come for only 10 days in a month and never come back for pending work. There’s nobody to listen to our grievances,” said Raju Mahadi, another committee member.

Pratibha Shinde, co-ordinator, Lok Sangharsh, an NGO working in the area, is not surprised. “They just wanted some publicity and hence they chose the tribal village for the UID card launch,” she said.

AT Kumbhar, collector, Nandurbar district, dismissed allegations of official apathy. “We are trying to provide maximum facility to the village. The job issue will be solved soon. We are also looking into why the road work is still pending. The home scheme is with the government and it is expected to be sorted out soon,’’ he said, adding, “There are 800 villages in the district and we have to look at everybody’s demand.”