REAL HEROES
Ihappened to watch a TV program honoring some real heroes of India who are unsung. The program was on CNN-IBN. The event was sponsored by Mukesh Ambani;s RIL. A celebrated team of jury had carefully selected a couple of people in every discipline and all of them deserved the recogntion. I was astonished by two winners in Public Service who have done the soceity proud. One man Rangaswamy Elango is from a little hamlet in Tamil nadu. He is an IIT graduate who had given up a lucrative career to help his village eradicate povery He is elected Chairman of the Panchayat and he has succeeded in eradicating povery andproviding employment to all in his village. He seems to me the ideal model for local development. We have had many five year plans, many Prime Ministers , Ministers and parapherenalia but still povery eradication programs are afflicted by poor delivery with corruption taking away most of the allocations. To avoid this only Rajiv advocated Panchati raj whereby local governments are empowered to implement welfare schemes for the poor . If only we have a few thousand Elangos among ourselves, we could certainly be the emerging economic power that Mckenzie consultants prophesised when it mooted the BRIC concept I am sure we have a lot many Elangos among ourselves. Decentralisation of power and resources allocation only will solve the problems of urban rural divide in our country. Until an English News Channel broke this news not many amongt us would have known Elangovan. But that did not deter Elangovan from carrying on his work. I salute him and let this inspire many more to care for their villages
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