Villages auction themselves to draw govt attention

Pained by the lack of facilities and continuous neglect by the government, four villages on the India-Pakistan border in Fazilka district of Punjab have found a new way of protesting. These villages have been put up on sale by their residents. The villagers have pasted posters outside their villages and are asking people to buy these through an open auction.

The four villages — Kerian, Chananwala, Muthianvali and Churiwala Chishti — have put all their possessions including land, homes and cattle on sale. The villagers believe that if any influential person buys these villages, he would at least bring basic facilities here.

The posters pasted outside these villages read: “Our village receives no support from the state or the Central government. This village neither falls in Punjab, nor Haryana nor Rajasthan. The ground water is bad here and the land is becoming barren as sewerage water is diverted here from a nearby canal. We neither have electricity nor canal water. 99 per cent of our villagers are under debt due to this.”

The poster further reads that any big industrialist or politician can buy these villages. To the villagers’ rue, they have not seen any development, there is no basic hospital here, neither is there any senior secondary school.

According to a farmer, Devinder Singh, who belongs to Chananwala village, “The list of our problems is very long. The ground water is not of good quality and we do not get canal water regularly. As a result, agriculture has become unsustainable, incurring debts for villagers.”

The villagers feel that they have become political orphans as political parties ignore them. The residents further say that as politicians ignore them, so do the government officials who have turned a blind eye to these villages keeping in view the long list of associated problems.

However, Fazailka Deputy Commissioner, Isha Kalia, says that residents of these villages should have first approached the local administration with their problems before putting up these posters.

“As per concerned officials, there is supply of water and electricity to these villages, nonetheless, I would have a meeting with the villagers tomorrow morning and try to resolve their grievances at the earliest possible.”