Govt’s star-rating of villages to decide marriage prospects of youth: Dhankar
ROHTAK: Haryana panchayat minister OP Dhankar on Friday said the upcoming star-rating scheme of the government, in which villages of the state will be rated from one to seven stars based on several factors, will enhance marriage prospects of bachelors residing in high-rated villages.
The minister was addressing a local function in Jhajjar where he made the light-hearted statement, which has already courted controversy.
“When a father will search for a groom for his daughter, he will check the stars a village has got before taking any decision. The high-rated villages will be preferred for grooms. So youths should ensure their villages are rated good,” Dhankar said, leaving many in splits.
Explaining his statement, the minister said that it was a good idea to bring in love angle to do some good for the villages. “95% Bollywood movies in this country use love angles and romance genre to sell. Why can’t we use it to sell development of our villages? If the youths do good for their villages in hope of finding brides, what is the harm?” Dhankar asked.
Under the star-rating scheme, best performing gram panchayats in each district would be identified in a systematic manner and awarded and incentivised, Dhankar said.
Such gram panchayats would be recognised as ‘Indradhanush gram panchayats’ on the basis of their scores on all parameters. Such villages would get special grants for development works from the panchayat department.
Under the scheme, pink star would be given to such panchayats that will work best in improving the sex ratio, green star for protection of environment, white star for cleanliness, saffron star for crime-free villages, sky colour star to the village which has no school drop-outs, golden star for good governance, and silver star would be given for participation in the development of villages.
The government will start the process of giving stars by March 23 this year.
Meanwhile, several people present at the event said the minister’s remark will send a wrong message that may lead to people avoiding marrying their daughters in low-performing villages.