Anantapur: Several PG candidates testing their luck for sarpanch posts

Anantapur: One interesting aspect in the Panchayat polls in the district is the presence of considerable number of educated youth both graduates and post-graduates including engineering graduates and young MBA unemployed candidates who are in the sarpanch electoral fray. Some of them are also employed who quit decent job prospects out of love and fascination to serve their native villages.

Those who quit their jobs include software engineers working abroad and in Bengaluru, private school teachers, advocates and businesswomen. All the youth, who quit their professions have a dream to realise development of their panchayat villages including infrastructure. The candidates with whom 'The Hans India' spoke to on telephone are all vocal on developing their own villages.

A new-found love for one's own villages is evident in their talk. Some of them drew inspiration from the movie 'Srimanthudu' which dwelt on native village development.

One-woman candidate for Gopepalle panchayat Chinta Rohini is a highly educated one contesting as sarpanch. She is an MSc, BEd with a dream to lay good roads, supply protected drinking water and promote greenery and sanitation. She will apply her mind on generating additional financial resources to finance her pet schemes. She plans to inspire the unemployed youth and motivate them to set up small scale industries to give jobs to local youth and build a solid village economy. She would also tap the doors of industrialists and philanthropists and encourage their participation in village development. She would also explore possibilities of getting Central funds where there is scope for tapping under different heads and by innovation. There are more than 20 educated persons who have either done M Tech, MBA and MSc and about 10 graduates who have a clear vision of village development.

Sreenath Reddy, a software engineer working in Bengaluru, quit his job and jumped into election fray as sarpanch candidate of Jogannapeta Panchayat in Nallamada mandal. He is an M Com post-graduate with a vision to solve basic problems of his village which remained unattended for decades. He would inspire children and youth to be well equipped with higher education.

He is promising to supply clean drinking water to every home in the village and arrange street lighting apart from taking steps to lay decent cement roads. He would also use his contacts as a software engineer to get people to donate for village development. He would also rope in NRI's to adopt villages for boosting basic infrastructure in his panchayat villages as well as help neighbouring panchayats in his quest for rural development.

G Eshwaramma of Talupula village and an M Sc (organic) post-graduate is aspiring to become the sarpanch of Narayanapuram panchayat. She has spurned several job offers to opt for social service and serve her village as sarpanch. She longs to promote organic farming in her village besides developing her village on all fronts. Her priority is development of basic infrastructure in her village.

Scores of educated sarpanch aspirants both men and women are dreaming of getting elected as sarpanches and prove their mettle as educated visionary youth and make a mark in politics and social development. They are hoping to make their villages as models of development.