Haryana’s ‘richest’ village donates whopping ₹10.5 crore to state Covid-19 fund

In 2000, Bal Jattan panchayat had sold around 700 acres of land to IOCL for the expansion of its oil refinery in Panipat district, and earned boatloads of money

In a big philanthropic gesture, the Bal Jattan village panchayat in Panipat donated ₹10.5 crore to the Haryana Corona Relief Fund on Sunday.

Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar thanked sarpanch Sarita Rani and other panchayat members for the huge donation and tweeted a photograph of him receiving the cheque from them.

While the move garnered praise from the authorities, it also raised questions about the source of income of the village panchayat.

Clearing the air, Sarita said that Bala Jattan is one of the richest village panchayats in the country as it still holds around ₹120 crore in its bank accounts and the annual interest on the amount is around ₹6 crore. Located in the Israna assembly constituency, Bal Jattan has a population of around 5,000 people and makes up for 2,500 votes.

Sarita, who belongs to the Dalit community, had won the previous panchayat elections by a thin margin of about 200 votes.

“Most of the panches and village elders were in favour of the donation as the country in dire need of financial resources to combat the coronavirus outbreak. We decided that the donation amount should be huge so that more panchayats and rich people get inspired to make similar contributions for the cause,” she said.

According to Sarita, ₹10.50 crore is not a big amount for the village as it has huge income and most of the facilities have already been provided to the villagers. “Also, the country is above the money,” she said.

Ranbir Singh, a local villager, said that around ₹700 acres of village land were acquired for the expansion of IOCL’s Panipat refinery in the year 2000, for which the panchayat had received a lot of money and ₹120 crore out of that amount were still lying in its bank account. “The villagers have made a big-hearted gesture by donating ₹10.5 crore in the state relief fund for coronavirus,” Singh said adding that the panchayat now has ₹380 acres of agriculture land which generates an annual income of over ₹1 crore.

Appreciating the panchayat’s concerted efforts, Sarita said village panches Manju, Rajesh Kumar, Raja Nain, Sudesh Rani, Satyawan, Vijay Rathi and Naresh Sharma unanimously extended their support for the decision. “Now, we want the government to upgrade our middle school to high school so our children don’t have to go to other villages for studies,” the sarpanch said adding that they were also making efforts to set up a hospital and sports stadium in the village.