The light bearer of Bulumgavan

Mumbai: Anand Joshi (26), an MBA from MIT, Pune open university is reverently referred to as khambewala saab in Bulumgavan village in Amravati district. He finds the tag both daunting and amusing: “They call me that because of the electric poles that stand in their village today.” In June last year, when he first set foot in the village, it was pitch dark. It had been that way for 70 years. “It’s amusing how things we often take for granted are the villagers’ basic demands: electricity, water, and better education.”

Mr. Joshi went there soon after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis appointed him the rural development fellow under the Maharashtra Village Social Transformation Foundation. He was one among 150 fellows handpicked last year and posted in various rural areas in the State with the aim of transforming villages.

“The first exercise I carried out was to get the villagers to talk about their problems,” says Mr. Joshi.

Located deep inside the district’s forest area, Bulumgavan has a population of just 589 people, with 105 households. Most of these villagers are farmers. Mr Joshi’s brief was to help with development of the village, and he soon began working on finding the roadblocks that had kept electricity away for so long.

It didn’t take long for Mr. Joshi to figure out the culprit: red tape. Electricity had been sanctioned years ago but it soon fell into a bureaucratic morass. Mr. Joshi set about gathering the paperwork, meeting the Collector and pursuing the authorities. He also began convincing the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) to take a 9-km deviation so their buses could reach Bulumgavan village. “The tar road to the village was always in existence. But the buses did not take the route as it has many twists and turns and drivers find it dangerous,” he says.

The MSRTC approval came through in March 2018. “For now, we have convinced them to run the service. But gradually, the road will have to be redesigned so that the drivers feel more comfortable driving on it,” he says.

For the villagers, the bus stop at the village means not having to walk on the 9-km tar road or through 4 km in the forest. “All villagers have to step out to sell their farm yields in the market, about 30 km away. Now they get a bus directly,” says Mr. Joshi.

As for electricity, the village got a festive makeover in April: Each household was lit up, and the villagers were overjoyed.

It wasn’t easy for Mr. Joshi at first. He stayed in a tiny room in the village school, travelling on work by State Transport buses. The villagers too were initially sceptical. “An elderly man once told me three MLAs had not done anything for the village, so what would a fourth person like me do?” says Mr. Joshi.

The villagers’ attitude towards him began to change when the Maharashtra State Electricity Board officials started erecting the poles in December. The wiring work began soon after, and all the 105 households got their own meters and a bulb.

Mr. Joshi’s fellowship comes to an end in June, and he considers the experience invaluable. “I worked closely with the Collector and other authorities at the ground level. This experience will go a long way for me,” he says.

Back home in Amravati’s Sainagar area, Mr. Joshi’s parents can’t stop talking about the achievements of their only child. “They feel great about my work,” he says.