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From no facilities to urban amenities, Moga village panchayat shows the way, creates its own income pool
The panchayat has built a mini-marriage palace, a booth market comprising 14 shops and a modern gym largely from its own resources
Once deprived even of basic amenities, Moga district’s Dala village has come a long way just in a matter of few years.
For, the village panchayat has set an example for others by creating an income pool from a host of amenities like a mini-marriage palace, a booth market comprising 14 shops and a modern gym that it built largely from its own resources.
A large under-construction marriage palace will fetch the panchayat an additional annual income of ₹8-10 lakh, locals said. Besides, the village with a population of 7,000 is completely covered with HD CCTV (high-definition closed-circuit television) cameras, solar street lights and interlocked tiles.
Village sarpanch Kuldeep Kaur said, “Four years ago, the village streets remained waterlogged for months in the absence of a drainage system. We dug up its 5 ponds for accumulating the sewage and then discharge it into the nearby drain.”
Panchayat secretary Sukhbir Singh, who is a resident of the village, said, “Currently, we are generating ₹3 lakh annually from the mini-marriage palace, the market and the gym. The second marriage palace will be completed by the end of the year.”
Even the Union ministry of panchayati raj recognized development in the village and awarded it with the ‘Deen Dayal Upadhyay Panchayat Sashaktikaran Puraskar’ in April 2018. The ministry had teams visited the village twice in 2017.
Also, the then Punjab rural development and panchayati raj minister Sikander Singh Maluka had also given the best panchayat to the village in 2016.
Sukhbir Singh said, “Nearly 85% of the total expenditure for development works was incurred by the panchayat from its own resources. Residents of cities have to pay multiple charges to have facilities. But our objective is to provide these facilities to the villagers at low charges or fees.”
Low charges
Kaur Singh, a village panch, said, “We are charging only ₹5,100 per marriage for the banquet hall. We have kept the charges low so that the poor can afford a good marriage ceremony. The banquet hall has capacity of 300 persons. The upcoming marriage palace will have a seating capacity of 1,000 persons and we will charge around ₹20,000-25,000 per marriage for this.”
Lakhvir Singh, sarpanch of nearby Daudhar village who was at Dala, said, “We are also planning to adopt the Dala model. I came here to review the works.”
District development panchayat officer Jagjit Singh Bal said, “We are trying to implement this model in other villages.”
