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Bhatti to be rst model village

TNN | Oct 22, 2014, 01.47 AM IST

NEW DELHI: Bhatti Village on the edge of south Delhi-long forgotten by planners-will be developed as the city's rst model
rural village under the "Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana". TOI had proled Bhatti in a series on the most neglected village in each
one of Delhi's seven parliamentary constituencies.

A statement issued by the Delhi government said South Delhi MP Ramesh Bidhuri approached the state for developing Bhatti
Mines Village as a model village under the scheme. Thereafter, chief secretary D M Spolia got the district authorities to conduct
a socio-economic survey of the village. "We want to develop it into a self-sustaining autonomous ideal village in keeping with
the vision of Mahatma Gandhi for development," Spolia said.

Bidhuri said he chose Bhatti as it is the most neglected of the 54 villages in his area. It does not have a reliable public transport
link and children have to go outside for higher classes as it only has a primary school. "Lack of transport deprives children of
education. Even facilities like piped water are not available here," Bidhuri said, adding that he will take up Ghitorni and Bhartal
villages next.

TOI reported on Bhatti Village in the edition dated August 23 under the headline, 'Bhatti Village: Govt Hand Doesn't Show
Here'. The report said most girls in Bhatti have never been to school. Frequent cases of harassment, and then the Nirbhaya
gang rape in 2012 left girls housebound as parents feared to send them to school.

Bhatti lies at the end of the main Chhatarpur Road, with the Haryana border to its south, Asola Village on its right and Fatehpur

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Beri and Dera Mandi villages on its left. In 1996, more than 11,100 bighas of the gram sabha land was notied under the Ridge in
the Delhi Gazette, and so a large part of the village is with the forest department.

The revenue village of Bhatti has three parts: Bhatti Kalan, Bhatti Khurd and Sanjay Colony. Most of the villagers are from the
Gujjar community. With a few exceptions, they do not own agricultural land but almost all households have livestock and milk is
their main source of income.

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