Jaipur: These villagers have given us some food for thought. In an age when technology has advanced and everything is digital, a village in Rajasthan has to sweat it out just to get ration from a government PDS shop. Owing to lack of mobile towers, villagers are forced to climb up a hill to get network and receive an OTP that needs to be produced at the ration shop. What is interesting is that the village is just 15 km away from Udaipur.
Sare village of Badgaon Panchayat Samiti in Udaipur is around 5 km from Udaipur-Jaipur highway and houses a population of 5,000. Every month, one of the staffers from the ration shop accompanies the villagers to the hill so they can receive the OTP from the POS machine. What is even more appalling is that even on the hill there is no assurance if there will be network. In that case, villagers have to climb up another hill.
The ration shop owner Kishan Singh Bhati said, “It is a big problem not only for villagers, but also for me as I have to appoint four helpers to distribute the ration.”
The villagers are facing many problems due to lack of mobile towers. Schools are closed due to Covid-19 and children are unable to study online. Also, one cannot contact anyone in case of a medical emergency.
The chief of Panchayat Samiti Pratap Singh said, “We are trying our best to get a mobile tower in the village but it seems that the officials are not interested. We will pursue this as it is a serious problem and we will stage a protest if our demands are not met.”
