NUAPADA: Known for her efforts in introducing drone services for delivering medicine to inaccessible areas and spearheading a Bartan bank to combat plastic pollution, sarpanch of Bhaleswar GP in Nuapada, Saroj Devi Agrawal has once again unveiled her latest innovative plan to introduce e-rickshaw to facilitate intra-GP mobility of villagers.
In a tweet to Rajya Sabha MP, Sujeet Kumar, the sarpanch urged to release funds of Rs 2 lakh from the MPLAD to procure an e-rickshaw to provide free of cost commuting services to the needy.
Speaking about her plan, Saroj Devi said during the ‘Sarpanch at Doorstep’ initiative, she got to know 60-70% of the people in the GP face inconvenience in commuting within the GP for different works. “The villagers often have to travel to the GP headquarters for various bank-related works, RI offices, PACS offices and Primary Healthcare Centre (PHC). In absence of transport services, people either take lift from strangers or request the village youths who are not responsible enough to pick-up and drop them. An e-rickshaw can resolve these problems in one go,” she explained.
According to her, a 6+1-seater e-rickshaw will cost around Rs 2 lakh. While a charging station for the same can be set-up at the Panchayat office, the salary of the e-rickshaw driver can be borne from the GP funds.
Once procured, the sarpanch plans to issue a list of beneficiaries who can avail the free ferry services and circulate a number for the beneficiaries to call the e-rickshaw which will pick them from the doorstep and later drop them after their work.
“LAccMI buses carry passengers from GP headquarters to the block headquarters. Since, the villages here are located in remote areas, the villagers need a smaller vehicle which can carry them to nearby places for basic needs. The e-rickshaw can also be used to carry expectant women to the PHC,” she stated.
The sarpanch has also mailed a detailed proposal in this regard to the CM and chairman 5T on how this model can be replicated across all the GPs in the state.
Earlier, in November, Saroj Devi had adopted an unconventional initiative to address the problem of plastic menace by setting up a Bartan bank in one of the villages to lend utensils and plates to villagers for community feasts which would restrict use of plastic plates. She is also the one to have introduced drone service to deliver medicine at remote villages.