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Saturday, September 23, 2006 |
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Saturday, September 23, 2006 |
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Revival of a faded dream Sandwiched between the historic town of Kurukshetra and the progressive city of Karnal, Nilokheri — a town that laid the foundation for the emergence of modern cooperative movement and Panchayati Raj institution — is a dream gone awry. More than half a century ago, this township was created by eminent social visionary S. K. Dey, as a perfect amalgamation of agro and industrial enterprises, for the resettlement of refugees who had come from Pakistan. So impressed was the first Prime Minister, Jawahar Lal Nehru, with the development of Nilokheri — from a marshy forest land to a modern agro industrial township — that he envisioned for the “development of many more Nilokheris all over the firmament of the country”.
Nilokheri project Fiftyfive years down the line, Nilokheri stands as a grim reminder of the government apathy and wasted enterprise. From being a model in community development for the entire country to emulate, it has been reduced to just another non-descript town along the Delhi-Ambala National Highway. Today, most of the youth in the town haven’t even heard of Dey or of the fact that he had established the town. The elders who have heard of him (and as children had seen him toil here) hardly understand the man’s vision to create the first planned city of North India. A majority of the families that had been drawn to the new township left it after it failed to evolve as a growth centre it was planned to be. “In a way, the Nilokheri project is like the Great Indian Dream that began at the time of Independence with a big bang. And its decadence is in sync with all that has gone wrong in independent India,” laments Santosh Verma, a senior citizen of the town. It was not without reason that Nehru called the Nilokheri project the best example of rehabilitation and hoped that the township “breaks fresh ground in striving for self-sufficiency through a complete cooperative movement, except for in iron, steel, petroleum and cement.” This was a town created by the people for themselves, without any government help (in terms of labour, infrastructure). It all began with the country gaining Independence from British rule. August 1947 brought freedom to the country, and chaos and misery to the thousands who were forced to migrate. Due to the massive exodus of Muslim labour from the industrial townships in northern India, the industry was threatened with extinction. Muslim artisans held a virtual monopoly. It was amidst this chaos that the concept of setting up a vocational training centre took wings in December 1947. This centre believed in using manpower by first training them and creating suitable conditions. Dey came to Kurukshetra in 1948, to work for the resettlement of refugees and trained people in various avocations. Initially, training was imparted in arts and crafts required in daily life in the settlement - brick moulding, bakery, knitting and embroidery, pottery and doll-making. Slowly, Dey realised the need for setting up a township away from the refugee camp. Nehru was so impressed by his work in training the refugees that he allowed him 500 acres of marshy jungle land, about 15 km from Kurukshetra, for setting up a new township. A grant of Rs 5 lakh was initially given by the government for the creation of the township. Dey got the settlers working and within two years, the township of Nilokheri was created. It drew its name from the nearby village of Nilokheri, which still exists. The new town was built to rehabilitate as many as 7000 displaced persons from the refugee camps of Kurukshetra and Ambala. Remembers Vipan Kumar, a chemist in the town’s Gol Market, “My father used to work with Mr Dey. He would get Rs 2 a day for clearing the jungles, which was sufficient for the family.” Once the forestland was cleared, a small row of houses, costing Rs 1600 each, was built to replace the tents. The planned township had specific areas earmarked for specific purposes. So, there was an area for schools, another for hospital, poultry, dairy, etc. These places were away from the residential area. The centre of the town has Gol Market, which has a circular design with roads from different areas leading to it. Since the Central Government was laying a lot of emphasis on agriculture, a huge expanse of land outside the township was reserved for agricultural use. Besides the fairly extensive farming area, a dairy, piggery, poultry farm and a horticulture station to produce fruit were also set up. “These were to serve as focal points for the eventual extension of similar activities in rural areas. Since the idea was to offer livelihood to the refugees, work centres were started in the crafts that were being taught at the Government Polytechnic here. A Government Press was also set up to give employment to 1000 persons. An Industries division was created with an engineering workshop. Weaving, calico printing, soap-making, laundry, bakery, tinsmithy, blacksmithy, general mechanics, leather-making and a multitude of other crafts and trades came in as a production nucleus, on which the day-to-day economy of the township could be built,” says Ranbir Singh, a consultant at the Haryana Institute of Rural Development (HIRD), Nilokheri. A social welfare division was created, which established an open-air theatre, naturopath health centre, besides organising extra-curricular activities in sports. In fact, Nilokheri also had a provision for a post-graduate medical institute and a Secretariat in its master plan. By the beginning of 1950, small, medium and village industries here were providing gainful employment to 625 families and 150 families were sustaining themselves through jobs in government institutions. As many as 60 families earned a livelihood from agriculture and allied industries, and 900 families from the construction division. This ensured that the average monthly income per worker was Rs 71.50, as indicated by a census taken of the employment, production and wage patterns.
What went wrong With Dey moving out of Nilokheri, this ‘Mecca of rural development’ lost its steam. Till the reorganisation of the Punjab in 1966, when Haryana was carved out as a separate state, the Nilokheri project was under the administration of the Central Government. Once Haryana was created, the project was brought under the state government. Over the years, apathy on the part of the government has led to the decline of the town — once hailed as “the giant leap from colonial domination to creative development”. The small houses made by residents have all vanished, and in their place stand rows of modern settlements. The areas earmarked for schools, hospital, etc too have been crowded with rows of houses. Ironically, these areas now have been renamed “School Area”, “Hospital Area” and “Kisan Basti”. Nilokheri doesn’t have any good schools, and there’s just one private college. There is no hospital — just a Community Health Centre that caters to a population of 20,000. “Residents just come here to sleep. For everything else, including employment, health care, education, shopping and banking, they have to venture out. Only basic shopping can be done here,” says Raj Kumar, an employee of the Government Press. Dey had set up three institutes in the town — Officers Training Centre (for training officers dealing in rural development), Integrated Industrial Training Centre (IITC) and Government Polytechnic. The IITC closed down four years ago, while the Officers Training Centre has been rechristened as the State Community Development Training Centre (SCDTC), where grassroot workers like Mahila Mandal members, gram sewaks, social education panchayat officers and schoolteachers are trained. The Government Press too is not recruiting staff, and its staff strength has reduced by almost 300 in the past five years. In the absence of any industry here and no new government jobs, unemployment has become a major problem. Says Surat Singh, Director, HIRD, “The IITC closed down because there were no takers for its courses. But Government Polytechnic has grown from strength to strength. This was the first polytechnic to be set up in North India, and continues to get 100 per cent placement for its students.” Agrees Kanika Verma and Rajiv Kumar, both students of Government Polytechnic, “This is the only institute here that kept pace with the changing times by offering courses like megatronics, mechanical engineering, production, electronics, electrical engineering, besides courses in information technology. Thus it has managed to retain its original glory. The government, too, has been generous in giving financial aid and designing the curriculum in tune with the changing times”.
Ray of hope But there is a ray of hope — in the form of Purbi Panday, a social scientist and daughter of Dey, who has now moved back to Nilokheri to realise her father’s dream, as the nation celebrates his centenary year. She intends to set up a foundation in the name of her late father, which will carry forward his vision in community and rural development. “I am also in touch with the Haryana Government, urging it to open two government colleges here — one for girls and another for the boys. We will also work to ensure that the IITC is re-opened. My other aim will be to start a non-conventional energy project for the benefit of the residents,” she says, adding that some former bureaucrats and social scientists, who were supporters of Dey, are keen to revive interest in the project. Also, carrying forward the principles of community and rural development are the faculty members of HIRD. The institute is involved in capacity building of district-level functionaries of Development and Panchayat departments and is conducting regular orientation and training programmes for panches and sarpanches. “For strengthening Panchayati Raj institutions, we are organising training camps for MLAs. We have also received government approval for carrying such workshops with MPs under the MPLAD scheme,” informs Surat Singh. |
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By the early 1950s, the well laid-out town of Nilokheri, suffused with a unique community feeling, became a showpiece of sorts where Nehru often brought visitors. So happy was he with the project that he wanted similar projects set up all across the country. He then called Dey to Delhi, and entrusted him with the responsibility to formulate similar community development initiatives for the entire country. 