India is the land of villages. There are lakhs of villages in our country. Every village is different in terms of development, culture, and beliefs. Though there were many religions they live in harmony and peace.
Village people are always devotees of nature. It is the power of this soil, where the land, water, and fire are worshipped as a god. But beyond all this these villages are lacking development for centuries. Even after 75 years of Independence, many villages lacked basic infrastructure. There are few villages which reached the peak of development through the villager’s dedication.
Today, I am going to tell you about a village which flourished with the far sight of villagers and achieved development.
Punsari village, A village in Gujarat’s Sabarkatha district has been declared as “Adarsh Gram.” Punsari village with a population of 6,000 has all the facilities and can compete with any metropolitan city in the country. Be it the schools or Anganwadi centres which are updated with new infrastructure and are well maintained. The roads are clean and litter-free. There is a speaker installed at every corner of the village to make public announcements to pass on all kinds of information to people.
Further, there is a bus facility system that people in the village use to commute to places within and sometimes to other nearby villages. Every basic need is well taken care of which has also improved the lifestyle of the villagers. Every home in the village has toilets, there are two primary schools, a primary health centre, street lights and a drainage system.
Just like in any city Punsari too has good roads, clean water, electricity, CCTV, an RO water plant, waste collection, Arogya Kendra, Kaushalya Vardhan Kendra, and digital schools. Facilities like bus stands and sound systems at every intersection are present in this village. The village is WIFI enabled and villagers can get 30 MBPS Data by registering themselves at Panchayat for Rs .50/- per month. As most of the villagers were in the dairy business, women had no option but to walk around 2 km every day to deliver milk to milk banks. This problem was solved by starting the village’s own transport system with minibuses.
The credit for the transformation of the village lies with Himanshu Patel. He was the village sarpanch from 2006 to 2014. For the success of Punsari, Patel did start any new initiatives but relied solely on schemes and programs launched by the government.
From educating people about Mudra Yojna, Jan Dhan Yojna or Ujjwala Yojna to using the state-sponsored schemes for the village to proper use.
During the Covid, the village encouraged social distancing and Covid – 19 guidelines by choosing digital mourning for one of the local Jayantibhai Darji (60 yrs) who died. It was arranged on Facebook. 300 persons paid their tribute at his funeral by using Facebook live.
Including the award for ‘Model village’, Punsari also won the state award for “BEST GRAM PANCHAYAT ” in 2011. To add further, in the year 2012 it also received “RAJIV GANDHI SARVASHRESHTHA GRAM AWARD”.
