Minister climbs tree to make a call
Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal wanted to make a call. He had to climb a tree to do so.
The remote Rajasthan village of Dholia presented a bleak picture of Digital India to the minister of state for finance. His mobile phone could catch a signal only after he climbed a tree, with the help of a ladder.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) minister had stopped by at the village near Sri Dungargarh town, 85 km from Bikaner, on Sunday to ask the people about their problems. When the locals urged the 63year-old minister to direct the chief medical and health officer (CMHO) to appoint a nurse for the local medical centre, he asked his assistant to connect him to the officer.
When attempts to reach the medical officer via a mobile phone failed, a helpful man brought a ladder and placed it along a tree. “Mantri ji, is par chadiya, tab lagega (Sir, it will work only if you climb this),” local BJP leader Surendra Singh, who was present there, quoted the man as saying. The minister smiled, climbed up the ladder and the call went through, Singh said.
“They made me climb a tree and I can call only hear from here,” Meghwal was heard telling the CMHO. “Appoint a temporary ANM (auxiliary nurse midwife) here tomorrow.” The locals clapped when the minister hung up. “I was in the village to speak to the people and address their issues,” the former IAS officer said later. However, he refused to comment on the poor mobile network in the area.