Doburji village in Ludhiana is ‘nation’s pride’ for its development, cleanliness; bags ‘Rashtriya Gaurav Award’

Doburji, 35 km from Ludhiana, has been chosen for overall development, cleanliness and fighting against social evils.

Doburji, a village 35 km from Ludhiana, has bagged the ‘National Gaurav Award’ for overall development, cleanliness and fighting against social evils.

Entry gate of Village Doburji in Ludhiana (Jagtinder Singh Grewal / HT)

The credit goes to the highly educated woman sarpanch of the village, Sukhbir Kaur, who has worked hard for its development. Sukhbir, 39, who is MA in English, was elected sarpanch in 2013.

Sarpanch Sukhbir KAur, a post graduate in English, who led the village’s development

The award will be presented to the village panchayat on April 24 at a national level function in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.

Doburji, a small village in Doraha tehsil, has a population of 1,400.

Talking to Hindustan Times, Sukhbir said that after the village panchayat came under the reserved category for women in 2013, her husband Parminder Singh and in-laws asked her to contest the elections. She nodded and voters gave their verdict in her favour.

Interlocking tiles being installed on a street at Doburji village in Ludhiana on Saturday.

“Most of the development projects in the village were stalled when I took over as sarpanch. We built new classrooms in the government school and upgraded the veterinary hospital of the village. We also installed solar lights in the village and constructed concrete streets and drains,” she said.

The panchayat also ensures fogging in the village at regular intervals to curb vector-borne diseases such as dengue, malaria and chikungunya, she added.

“We organise girl child awareness mela every year in the village. The village now has more population of girls as compared to boys. Soon we are going to install a water purifier system in the village to provide potable water to every resident,” she added.

Meanwhile, villagers are excited over the village getting the national award. Pritam Singh, a local resident, said, “Look at streets of the village. You will not get to see garbage anywhere in the village. That’s why we have earned the award.”

Deputy commissioner Pradeep Aggarwal said, “It is a proud moment that a village of Ludhiana has bagged the national award. The district administration is encouraging other panchayats to work for the development of their respective villages so that they can also get such awards.”