Oni: Uttarakhand village-sized chart for G20 ACWG meeting

Nestled deep in the Himalayan foothills of Narendra Nagar, in Tehri, Uttarakhand, the Oni village is hard to believe even when you’re standing in the middle of it. Spread over 30 hectares and home to 112 families, its trees are laden with lychees, grapes and mangoes. Its staggered cultivation fields produce wheat, rice and millet for the consumption of its inhabitants. It has two schools, newly built irrigation tanks, an Anganwadi center, a utensil bank for common use by villagers, and a bulk milk collection center.”

Its houses are quaint to say the least, recently painted with elaborate designs in the style of local art. Its bright red and yellow walls have been marked with mandalas, animal shapes, and even elaborate murals. The streets have been cleaned; its hilly soil walls have been fortified with steel mesh to contain loose gravel. And enveloping it all is a boundless expanse of hilly forest, so that when viewed from the newly built vantage point, the brightly colored houses rise in flashes of red and yellow from a complete, unbroken screen of green.

As the second Anti-Corruption Task Force drew to a close on Thursday, attending delegates from G20 member nations visited this idyllic spot on Sunday to relax and get a closer experience of rural life in the Uttarakhand hills.

Oni’s transformation has been ongoing for several months, in preparation for Sunday’s visit. The village was selected from a list of eight nearby villages, based on its proximity and easy access from the ACWG headquarters at Westin Spa and Resorts in Narendra Nagar.

The nearly three kilometer access road connecting the village to the main road from Rishikesh to Narendra Nagar has been widened and resurfaced, improving the village’s connectivity with both urban centres. Inside, the village paths have been laid with interlocking tiles. The villagers, however, are more enthusiastic about improving lighting, electricity, drinking water, and irrigation facilities. Nearly 40 solar streetlights have been installed, two new potable water tanks of 10,000 liters each and two new transformers. Two public toilets with four places each for men and women have also been built. “We used to rely mainly on rainwater for irrigation, but now the G20 initiative has connected our fields to nearby rivers and streams, as well as rainwater storage facilities for irrigation,” says Prem Singh, who grows lychees. and mangoes.

Most importantly, the village has been provided with a Bulk Milk Collection Center (BMC). The village produces an average of 1.5 quintals of milk every day and the villagers have had to travel to Rishikesh to sell their milk every day. Mohammad Mustafa Khan, officer of Panchayati District, Tehri-Garhwal, said: “Now with the BMC, they will be able to sell their milk right here, also at fair prices mandated by the government.” The milk will then be delivered to Rishikesh in BMC tanker trucks.

In addition to this, the Anganwadi center of the village has been rejuvenated and a modern kitchen has been built here so that children can enjoy good food. Funds and facilities have been provided to the villagers for the development of fisheries, livestock breeding and protection, and the development of polytunnel greenhouses.

Delegates will also have lunch in the village and then enjoy various cultural programs in the local traditions of music and dance. Facilities such as Interpretation Centers for guests have also been built.

Oni’s transformation is therefore symptomatic of the specific development and renewal of local communities that have been part of India’s G20 presidency, through working group meetings organized in various towns and cities across India. Indian Tier 2. A senior media and communication expert who was also an executive at the Central Communications Office explains: “Hosting international summits like the G20 is an opportunity for targeted development of smaller urban and suburban localities, as well as presenting a positive narrative about the development goals of the nation to the world.

This is evident in the main venues of the G20 meetings so far. In particular, the recently concluded tourism task force meeting in Srinagar, which was the first international meeting after the repeal of Article 370 and the downgrading of Jammu and Kashmir from a state to the Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh, it saw major renovations in the city. Similar projects highlighting local culture and enhancing tourist attractions have been carried out in Gandhinagar, Kumarakom etc.

Rishikesh also underwent a major renovation campaign with the installation of new and safer gazebos and gazebos, drinking taps for water directly from mountain streams, and stronger landslide protections in the greater urban region of Rishikesh.

“However, the biggest challenge of such renewal campaigns, no matter how specific, is maintaining comprehensive coverage,” says the former senior executive. In fact, despite the scale of renovation activities in Ouni, it seems that not every corner of the village community has been covered. Says Ratan Prakash (name changed on request): “Some of the houses, like my neighbour’s, which will not fall on the route taken by visitors have been left unpainted and in their dilapidated old condition.”

Similarly, although the Anganwadi center has been renovated, no effort has been made to help Anganwadi workers connect with men in the village regarding women’s health during pregnancy, they told Business Standard. several older women from the village. Men in these households, they said, are still quite reluctant to share the burden of household chores or avoid superstitious beliefs that affect their wives’ health during pregnancy.

Others point out that the renovation should also have focused on providing a better-equipped primary health center in the village. The village currently has an auxiliary nursing and midwifery facility, and villagers must travel 5 km to the nearest hospital in Rishikesh.

Khan, however, is optimistic, noting that comprehensive coverage can never be the primary goal of such renewal campaigns. “A start has been made. Oni was also identified as a smart village two years ago and since then we have gradually started upgrading the facilities, including the availability of high-speed internet and telecommunications network connectivity. With the impetus of the G20, we have also been able to attract the attention of tourists. This will help us develop the town as an ecotourism hub and this, in turn, will help fill the gaps in rural infrastructure for years to come,” he said.