Assam: In CM Tarun Gogoi’s model village, toilets a luxury

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Villagers are happy, however, that they have a better road now, though it has only 400 metres of gravel, the remaining 2 km a bumpy stretch of mud and stone chips. “Earlier there was no road at all. We had to wade through slush during the rainy months. The best outcome of becoming a model village has been piped water supply, followed by electricity, but not all villagers can afford these because we have to pay bills for both,” said Bohagi Das, whose husband Kanu Das is a daily-wager mason.

“We don’t have a proper latrine because I cannot afford Rs 1,000 for a dalal,” said Rupali Das, a widow whose high school-going daughter has got a bicycle from the Congress government. Rupali’s son Papu Das, meanwhile, did not hesitate to admit that they steal electricity by hooking to the line in front of their house. Their neighbour Palash Das and his family don’t have even a kutcha latrine. “Earlier we used to go to the fields, now we use the kutcha latrine of Rupali Das,” said Palash’s wife Rima.

The model village has about 1,400 residents, of whom 650 are voters. They are a mix of scheduled castes, tea tribes and OBCs.

“Despite the slow progress of schemes under the model village programme, we will vote for the chief minister because the road and electricity would not have been possible without him,” said Numali Das, whose latrine too is incomplete

“There are not much additional funds for the model village. Most are actually ongoing schemes, except the water supply scheme,” said Kamal Kachari, vice-president of the Congress’s campaign committee for Titabor. “In fact the Titabor Water Supply Scheme provides to nearly 70 per cent of the constituency’s residents.” Kachari is also chairman of the Thengal Kachari Autonomous Council that has its head office here.

About 10 km from Jonaki Mandal is Jorhat MP Kamakhya Prasad Tasha’s Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana, which covers three revenue villages — Paninara, Adhalkatia and Khamjangia. Nothing significant has happened in these three villages since they were declared model villages. Tasha, incidentally, is the BJP’s candidate against Gogoi in Titabor.

“Tasha has come here twice since declaring these three villages as model villages. A few awareness meetings have been held, while a couple of farming and embroidery camps have covered about 200 young men and women,” admitted Reba Kanta Shyam, retired headmaster and president of Adrash Gram project coordination committee.

Gogoi is facing a contest for the first time. He won in 2001, 2006 and 2011 with an average margin of over 45,000 votes. In the Lok Sabha poll to Jorhat, however, the Congress got only 4,587 votes more than BJP in Titabor.

“2014 was different,” said Gogoi’s campaign manager Kachari. “Look what the people of Titabor have got since 2001 — 2,000 got power tillers, 400 tractors, 1,000 tempos, 7,500 IAY houses, over 6,500 old-age pensions. Over 10,000 schoolgirls have got bicycles in 15 years, and 2,600 students laptops. All these and many more, in fact, make Titabor itself a model constituency.”

While the Congress believes these benefits will translate into votes, it expects also that the majority of the 33,000 Thengal Kachari voters would press the button against the palm because the community has been given an autonomous council.