Backward status sought for Raje district
■ Jhalawar district collector’s letter embarrasses Raj govt
A letter from Jhalawar district collector has become cause of embarrassment for chief minister Vasundhara Raje.
Addressed to director project, panchayati raj and rural development department, the district collector Dr. Jitendra Kumar Soni has requested in the letter for inclusion of Jhalawar in the six most backward districts in the state.
“Jhalawar is highly backward compared to other districts of the state on social, economic and basic infrastructure parameters set by NITI Aayog. The backward category status would strengthen its development process,” Mr. Soni wrote.
To support, Jhalawar’s claim, Mr Soni mentioned extreme poverty and abysmally low social and educational standards. “People are dependent on agriculture and manual labour for livelihood. Most scheduled caste and scheduled tribe children are suffering from malnutrition. The road connectivity between villages and cities is poor and during the monsoon the area converts into an island,” he wrote.
According to Mr Soni, 11,000 families have no electricity connection while 2.15 lakh families have been receiving unsafe drinking water.
The district collector send this information in response to the state government NITI Aayog’s exercise to identify 115 most backward districts for special attention and improvement measures.
Chief minister Vasundhara Raje has been representing Jhalrapatan assembly constituency since 2003. People of Jhalawar have been unfailingly sending her ( five times 1989- 2003) and her son Dushyant Singh ( three times since 2004) to Lok Sabha.
A week ago, during ‘ Gaurav Yatra’, Mrs Raje had claimed, “Development works worth ` 17,000 crore were either completed or running here.”