Smart cities not possible without smart villages: Sarpanch

TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi/ The development of villages is essential for the overall progress of the country and to have smart cities, said woman sarpanch Chhavi Rajawat. Rajawat, who shot to fame when she quit a cushy corporate job to contest for the post of sarpanch, said the panchayats, dependent on the bureaucracy for approval of funds, should be given financial powers to deliver results.

“Smart cities are not possible without smart villages first… We live in the comforts of cities and often forget that a majority of people in our country live in villages. Everyone is directly or indirectly affected by villages,” she said.

The MBA graduate-turned-sarpanch of Soda village in Rajasthan was addressing the FICCI Ladies Organisation, a division of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, on the topic, ‘Women who have paved their own path’, here last evening. The village-level elected representatives are not able to deliver results as they lack financial autonomy, she said.