Amethi has big projects, but very little piped water

AMETHI: Less than a kilometre from the collector’s bungalow in the heart of Amethi district, Katra Lalganj residents are up in arms. Swamped by sewage for more than two years, access to 250 homes in the area is possible only if one does a tight-rope walk. The locality is a breeding ground for disease. Complaints to the administration, MLA and MP offices have yielded no results.If being residents of a VIP constituency should result in automatic empowerment, many Amethi residents are still waiting.
Amethi’s growth story doesn’t seem to have kept pace with its fame. Even the battle for ballots will be fought on borrowed territory. In 2010, Mayawati carved out Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Nagar from Rae Bareli and Sultanpur districts. In 2012, the SP government ordered Tiloi, Gauriganj, Amethi and Musafi rkhana to be brought under the umbrella of Amethi, Rahul Gandhi’s constituency, while another assembly segment, Salon, be merged with Rae Bareli. These shake-ups left people of Amethi confused. That’s because after four years of separation from Sultanpur and Rae Bareli they still share resources with neighbours. The erstwhile PWD guesthouse doubles as the DM’s bungalow, a former hospital serves as the SP’s office and the collectorate functions from an old Tehsil building.
Birendra Mishra, principal of Gauriganj’s Shiv Balak Prasad Shiksha Niketan, says: “District status has brought us closer to the district headquarters, but our ration supplies have been cut. We get two litres of kerosene a month.”
Another teacher, Raj Karan Singh, says he can’t reap the benefits of Amethi’s district status. “I still take my 90-year-old mother to Sultanpur to get her pension,” he rues. Four years on, Amethi doesn’t have a fully-functional district hospital; an old community health centre makes do with a few doctors. There are no blood banks. Senior administrative officials say, on paper, Amethi is still a revenue village. The papers to accord it tehsil status have been moved, but government files take time. In Gauriganj, headquarters of the four-year-old district with more than 3 lakh people, most households don’t have piped water.
Despite the poor development indicators, Rahul’s office maintains he has spared no effort nurturing Amethi. From 2004, when he first won the seat, the area has got several thousand crores of central funds. Rahul’s MP funds were used to build 49 schools, 288 roads and 29 rest-houses, and provide more than 3,000 hand pumps.
Amethi is well-connected by rail, which residents say has helped. Amethi has attracted a mega food park, more than 60 bank branches, Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited, an ACC plant and an IIIT, among others.
Still, much of what UPA’s 2009 manifesto promised hasn’t been achieved. The district has more than 2,000 government and aided schools, 18 government inter-colleges and a Kendriya Vidyalaya. Yet, it ranks lowest in UP in following Right to Education norms. While UP remains a collective laggard, Amethi has the worst teacher-student and student classroom ratios in the state. Amethi lags on NREGA, UPA’s flagship job scheme, where sanctioned works were being completed only on paper. Officially, Rahul claims to have given Amethi 1,627km of roads. Still, more than three dozen villages have kuchcha roads.
So, has Rahul delivered? VN Mishra, retired academic, says, “Amethi has seen more development than other constituencies. If bigticket projects have come here, it’s because of Rahul. The Centre hasn’t been able to push the state to follow suit. Basic infrastructure remains weak but high-end projects exist. He’s pushing for higher education and employment without tackling the rut gripping primary and secondary education. For that he needs the state government.”