Villagers of Chak Chilla ‘swell with pride’ taking part in BJP’s virtual rally
NEW DELHI: Around 15-odd families staying at an island in the middle of Yamuna — part of Chak Chilla village — have been participating in the electoral process for years, but no ‘big’ political leaders had ever visited them.
Saturday evening though turned out to be quite different. For the first time, the villagers participated in a political event as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made arrangements for them to attend a virtual rally addressed by Union Minister Smriti Irani.
The event was planned for the first anniversary celebrations of the second stint of Modi government at the Centre.
BJP’s good governance cell member Virender Sachdeva installed a television screen and placed an inverter for live streaming of Irani’s speech for the villagers, who otherwise don’t have access to regular power and piped water supply.
Delhi BJP’s general secretary (organisation) Siddharthan also reached the island to join the families in their rather unique experience.
Chak Chilla village is located on the Yamuna riverbed, along the DND flyway. The island is completely cut off from the mainland and can only be accessed by a boat.
“To fetch drinking water, we have to travel to Okhla. We don’t have a proper power supply and to charge our mobile phones, we are dependent on solar lamps. Even the children of the village take a boat ride to reach their schools or colleges in Okhla. It is a matter of pride for us that a big politician reached out to us,” said Suraj.
The village falls under the Patparganj assembly constituency, which is represented by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia. Sachdeva said that the benefits of government schemes do not reach this village. “Since lockdown, we have been taking care of these families. Today, we connected them with our leaders. We wanted to make them aware of schemes launched by the Modi government for the people over the past year,” he said.
Educating for a better future
BJP’s good governance cell member Virender Siddharthan said that with the initiative, the villagers of Chak Chilla would hopefully better understand and know the pro-poor policies and projects of the Modi government introduced over the past six years.