23rd May, 2011
We visited Abhepuri today to attend the Grampanchayat meeting and then discuss things about the present and future projects. The discussion was more about a plantation program. The objective of the Panchayat was not to plant trees, but to get the monitory grants from government. The plan was to plant about 100 saplings. For that they needed 100 pits. This was a huge task. We suggested about Shramdaan, but the villagers were more keen on getting the JCB machines to dig the pits. They did not even plan for the maintenance. So it became very clear that their objective is not plantation, but the grant. During the discussion we met a person called Sachin. He was an electrician by profession and worked in Pune. He was a person full of energy. I was astonished to learn that the whole village was under debt of 60 millions. The village was facing water scarcity program and did not have more than one crop in a year. So they were in no condition to pay it back. And Sachin even feared that the banks might keep their lands on auction in future if they were not able to pay them back.
How come the whole village was in debt! That should be the next question. There was a scheme. A scheme to get water from the dam. I really don’t understand what happened and how the villagers were convinced, but all the villagers took debts from various banks. The scheme failed. The maintenance cost went too high. Moreover, no one was ready to take ownership. And so they did not attain the breakeven and finally in debt they are of 60 millions.
Sachin had a plan in mind. He had been studying some documents and maps. He had the map of the pipes and pumps in place. He had a plan in mind of how the village can be connected with the water in the dam. But then I don’t know why, the authorities did not seem to be convinced by it. Rather probably they did not want to get convinced. What ever the case may be, but there seemed a divide between the sarpanch and sachin. We went to the places around with Sachin. He showed us the pumps and wells. Jared said that if this system works out, most of the water problems of Abhepuri might get over. Lets see whats next.
-SD
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