PATNA: A panchayat head in a Bihar village is planning to go on a round to inspect Anganwadi centres and PDS shops. Usual practice, you would think. However, this mukhiya is a class 9 student who will take the post for three days at the Hathini Panchayat in Rohtas district. which falls in the Shahabad region, a large part of which is hit by the Naxal issue.
Kajal Kumari,16, has been appointed the panchayat chief by the Gram Sabha following the consent of the present mukhiya, Dayanand Singh. The student of Upgraded High School, Hathini, will take charge on Monday.
The villagers are elated to hand over the reins to her for three days, and say that her decisions will be passed by the Gram Sabha unanimously. Kajal was selected for the job after she won a general knowledge competition held in the panchayat on the occasion of Republic Day.
Dayanand Singh said that he had won the last panchayat election by only five votes as his rival, although uneducated, was rich and gave him tough competition.
“By making a class 9 student the mukhiya for three days, I want to prove how education makes a person more capable of devising ideas for the development of a society,” he said, adding that his mother Urmila Devi was also a mukhiya and was also given an award for her work during the pandemic.
Kajal, a native of Rupkatha village, said that besides conducting inspection of Anganwadi centres and PDS shops, she would also visit schools to find out if teachers were present and children attended classes. She will also focus on preparing plans for improving the cleanliness of the panchayat, which has a population of around 12,000 people.
Singh has also given his SUV to Kajal to enable her to tour various villages. The students who took the second and third places in the general knowledge competition have also been included in Kajal’s ‘Cabinet’.