Confusion over MP's 'model village' in Fatehgarh Sahib
Nine months after the concept of a Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) was articulated and conceptualised, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Member of Parliament (MP) from Fatehgarh Sahib Harinder Singh Khalsa is yet to select the village he wants to develop as part of the scheme and does not seem to be interested in implementing the scheme.
Nine months after the concept of a Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) was articulated and conceptualised, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Member of Parliament (MP) from Fatehgarh Sahib Harinder Singh Khalsa is yet to select the village he wants to develop as part of the scheme and does not seem to be interested in implementing the scheme.
This is even as the Fatehgarh Sahib district administration has already sent a detailed plan for the development of Chunni Kalan village to the Centre, ostensibly after taking the MP's consent for the same. Khalsa, however, has now claimed that he did not give any approval for a village to be developed under the SAGY scheme under his constituency.
However, the district administration has claimed that his personal assistant had told them that Khalsa wanted the village to be adopted, although there was no explicit approval as Khalsa himself was in Canada at that time. Now, Khalsa denies that he gave any approval.
Even as the MP could not be contacted for his comments, sources said that he wanted the Centre to allocate separate funds for the scheme and in a bit of hyperbole, also claimed that he wanted to develop all the villages in his constituency - spread over nine assembly segments across the districts of Fatehgarh Sahib, Sangrur and Ludhiana.
However, residents of Chunni Kalan village seem to be unaware that their MP was not particularly keen on doing any special favours for them.
Sarpanch Balbir Singh said, "Our main demands include improved laying of a sewerage system, provision of underground drainage, the setting up of a hospital and upgrade of existing High School into the Higher Secondary school. After matric, students have to take admission in secondary schools at Fatehgarh Sahib or Mohali."
The MP also chose to absent himself when a 30-member delegation of officers from five states of Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand and Punjab visited the Chunni Kalan village to discuss problems being faced by the village, on May 13, 2015.
When queried on the next course of action, ADC (development) Sanjeev Garg said a detailed project plan had been sent to the Central government for approval before he joined at the present posting.