It was a different Gram Sabha at Hulhulya under Purnadih panchayat in lesliganj block in Palamu on Thursday. Secretary Higher and Technical Education Ajay Kumar Singh ‘chaired’ the gram sabha while sitting on the floor of a Government upgraded middle school there while villagers mostly women sat under the shade of a huge leaf laden tree there. DC Palamu Ameet Kumar shared the floor space with secretary.
A functionary of the lesliganj block was reading out questions and seeking villagers’ response. At the fag end of the Gram Sabha a woman was given the task of reading out the set of questions.
One question was where do the villagers go when they fall sick to a quack, a Government doctor, to a vaid etcIJ The villagers responded in their own way.
The Secretary took the cordless mike and asked in a rustic tone “Kahan Eelaj kararey hain. Kisko kahtey hain jhoula chhap doctorIJ” The gathering knew its answer well and responded properly.
Another question was does ANM come and do villagers recognise herIJ This question would have fainted many ANMs but here the ANM stood her ground and said what services did she offer on being sought for by the villagers.
However when it came to aagan badi kendra as to when it opens and how does it function the response was dismal.
A man in the gathering stood to say ‘There was a mini aagan badi kendra here where just on any fine day a handful of rice was cooked and this irritated him so much that he banged the door of his house for the kendra.
Institutional delivery has caught up here with pregnant mothers. Mamta Wahan is still a dream here said villagers.
The functionary who read out a disease ‘Sickle Anemia’ to know the response of the villagers had to speed up himself as this term was a Greek to him and understandably no villager responded to this if this disease plagues their children.
Secretary Ajay used to take the mike when the questions were found to be more clumsy and officious as DC Ameet Kumat too used to step in to simplify the questions to be answered by the villagers.
On ‘Murgi Anda’ ( hen egg) secretary and DC both urged the Mahila Self Help Group to go for poultry as eggs so produced can be well consumed in mid day meal in government schools.
Villagers at Hulhulya showed indifference towards setting up dairy farm. There were very few takers of solar energy. Villagers wanted non stop electricity but when it came down to lED bulbs they looked the other way round. The villagers were prompted to turn fallow land in their village to become a productive land.