Modern mukhiya

Back in the village,he began looking after his family-owned farm and orchards. Kumar is the eldest among three brothershis youngest brother is an orthopaedic surgeon while his younger brother helps him out in the village. Kumars wife is a lecturer at the Samastipur Womens College.

A few years after his return,Kumar decided to take an active part in the village administration and contested the panchayat elections in 2001 and was elected mukhiyasix villages fall under his panchayat. Three years later,Kumar surprised the Hasanpur Block Development Officer when he presented him with a CD of the list of BPL families in his panchayatthe CD was not compatible with the government system.

After being elected,Kumar decided three things needed attention: corruption,casteism and technology to aid farming. Nine years later,Kumar calls Nayanagar a zero-ghoos bribe village. No villager in Nayanagar panchayat Hasanpur block now has to pay bribe to get a house under the Indira Awas Scheme,or for work under the NREGS.

Says an official at the Hasanpur block office,Kumar is perhaps the only panchayat head who has returned surplus flood relief grains three times. Rosera sub-divisional officer Sunil Kumar,who worked at Hasanpur as BDO-cum-circle officer for three years,calls Kumar a model mukhiya,who has controlled corruption and brought in a professional work culture. When most mukhiyas cannot draft a letter,Kumars computerised letters and perfect BPL list were a great help to us, he says.

Since no government officials at the block level can ask Kumar for cuts or commission for sanctioning panchayat projects,they often try to delay them. During my first term,I got approval for projects only in my fourth year as mukhiya. I spent three years making my case to everyone from the BDO to the DM. Now,they treat us with respect and whenever there is any inspection from the top,it is Nayanagar that saves their skin, says Kumar,switching from English to the local dialect with ease.

Says Hasanpur BDO Raghuvar Prasad,Kumar has done us proud with 100 per cent completion of works. His approach is fresh and non-casteist. To me,he is a Gandhian in an otherwise muddled atmosphere.

Over the years,Kumar has also tried to persuade villagers to abandon their caste prejudices. To set an example,he dropped his last name,Sinha,and now uses only Kumar. At his farm,of the 16 employees,most are Dalits. And when upper caste men refused to stand in queue along with men from lower castes,Kumar reiterated that he would identify only beneficiaries,not castes.

He has also introduced villagers to new farming technology. My day starts with writing agricultural prescriptions to farmers on the right mix of fertlisers to be used,the seed variety to choose,pruning and sprinkling methods. I introduced micro-irrigation,drip irrigation and sprinklers, says Kumar.

Kumar,who has got modern agricultural equipment for villagers,now wants to install a GPS on his tractors to monitor farming from a centralised village office. His efforts are paying off. According to farmers from Simha,Gauradih and Barepura their wheat produce has gone up by 40 per cent. The use of micro-nutrient sprays to meet the vitamin deficiency of plants has worked wonders, says Mohammed Usman,a farmer in Simha,a village in Nayanagar panchayat.

Kumars developmental workhe has got 58 solar lights installed in his panchayathas won him popular support,thanks to which he was elected mukhiya for the second time in 2006.