During our ShikshaDaan Yatra we stop at small “dhabas” and tea shops and talk to people there because we get some great insights on the state of the state !! This time around when we were at a roadside tea shop near Jhansi, we asked about the Jan Dhan account and the insurance schemes – PM Suraksha Bima yojana and PM Jivan Jyoti yojana. Everyone there knew about the Aadhar card and had got one but very few people knew about the Jan Dhan account and the subsidy from the gas connections reaching their account directly. We shared the information with them and hoped they would register themselves with the insurance schemes and the Jan Dhan account.
The other disturbing news we heard from truck drivers is that the toll booths are manned by private companies and if the trucks are from Tamil Nadu or any of the southern states and the drivers don’t know how to speak in Hindi, they are beaten up even if their trucks are under-loaded. Apparently most of the trucks from Tamil Nadu are never overloaded but one of the drivers got thrashed because he couldn’t understand Hindi and he refused to pay more than the regular charges. He asked for a challan and was just beaten up.
Uttar Pradesh seems to be in need for some good governance. Even if its run by a party that is opposed to the BJP why not implement the good schemes of the government ? Take the benefits by highlighting their achievements and make life better for the common man.
The next day we were at Partapur, just after Narsinghpur at our favorite tea stall and the owner of the tea stall was present. He is also a Hindi teacher at the local government school. When we asked him about the Jan Dhan scheme and the insurance schemes, he knew everything. He told us that all the villagers had the Aadhar card and were registered in all the government’s schemes. He even spoke of Digital India !!
The most heart warming thing that he shared was about girl children coming out in large numbers to get educated while earlier mostly only boys came to school. There is apparently some scheme for the girl child’s education from the state government and its working very well. He just mentioned that if a hostel could be made it will help these girl children, since many of them came from as far as 10 kms and during winters had to go back through forested area after it got dark.
The only thing that this village doesn’t have are toilets and hopefully the state government can rectify that situation.
A great endorsement for the Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan from a common man and without any prompting. Awesome work done by him.