In the dust and toil of the 600- year-old Pillanji village, 55-year-old Shakuntla Devi who lives with her family has to jostle daily with six other families for water. they have to use single toilet and this shows the ugly living conditions of pepole living in urban and rural areas.
This ‘Urban Village’ situated in the heart of the national Capital lacks developmental work. It houses people from the lower strata especially from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar who eak out their livelihoods by doing menial jobs. She coughs up Rs 7,000 per a month for her rented accommodation. There are many families in Planji like Shakuntla who barely make the two ends meet.
“We do not have a separate bathroom, for collecting water we wake up at early morning every day, political parties seem to remember us only in election season. Rest of the year civic authorities harasses us for so called ‘unauthorised construction’…” rued Devi.
Even being situated in the heart of New Delhi Constituency, Pilanji is a classic case of neglect and appears to be forgotten by the political leaders as well as the civic authorities as the nearly 600-year-old village is expanding day by day with illegal and rampant unauthorised construction right under the nose of Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC).
Pillanji village, sandwiched between Laxmi Bai Nagar and Sarojini Nagar and situated few hundred metres away from the Dilli Haat, it lacks basic amenities such as toilets and water. Interestingly, the village with a population of around 30,000 is adopted by the sitting Member of Parliament (MP) Meenakshi Lekhi. The village has a population of more than 30,000 people and has around 25,000 voters.
Another villager, Madan Kumar who is a landlord said, “Most of the houses here are owned either by the Jaat’s or Gurjars. We people earn money from rents but what about the poor. Moreover, though we own a house or two but we also want our children to be educated, go to school and college and get a government job but it is very sad to say, that the schools just corner the parents and their children from the queue as soon they get to know that they come from ‘Pillanji village’. The village should develop as a ‘heritage village’ and the government should pay attention as it has been converted into a slum and the people are discriminated against.
Other villagers also expressed disgruntlement about the poor infrastructure, illegal construction, traffic jams, garbage disposal, poor lighting, lack of water and access to schooling and education and Mohalla clinics.
Residents want the government to build a community centre, 24 hours water supply, foot over bridge, marriage hall, vocational teaching courses centre such as (stitching course for women, adult education for the old and crèches for the children), pensions for senior citizen and widow, proper playground for children and parking facilities of the auto and e-rickshaws.
The villagers also listed that the MP Lekhi who adopted the village in 2014 under the Saansad Aadarsh gram Yojana has carried out some good development works such as improvement of the inner road infrastructures and sewage lines but that was not enough.
However, a villager complained, we have written to DDA, NDMC and MLA to construct a foot over bridge (FOB) here but none has put listen to us. It is a nightmare for the children who take risk to cross the road as the Gaon is situated right on the main road. When contacted DDA officials said it is the responsibility of NDMC and officials here did not respond to the queries.
When contacted, Member of Parliament from New Delhi constituency Meenakshi Lekhi said that the condition of the village was very poor during the congress regime. “Soon after I adopted the villages, major developmental works were initiated to improve the overall infrastructure,” she said.
Lekhi further said that she developed proper roads, pipelines and sewerage in the area using MP fund. Earlier, the area had poor infrastructure and very narrow lanes that was later widened. “New transformers were installed to ensure electricity exclusively for the residents of pillanji. We kept organizing monthly mobile camps to interact with the people to address their issue,” she said, adding that a special awareness programme was also initiated to keep the area clean by managing waste.
She also said that they were informed to dispose the wet and dry garbage separately. A waste treatment plant has also been installed in the area to process waste, she added.
However, she said that there are need to develop ‘Foot Over Bridge’, community centre, and playground that would be addressed. Accusing the ruling AAP, she said the government is not letting the things done. I have written many letters to the Delhi government but with no response.
