A novel scheme has saved two hilly villages from drought-like situation. These two village namely Biharwara and Meherkhuwa are situated at Kishangarh's hilly area in Chhatarpur district. Public Health Engineering Department is supplying water to these two villages from a brook. Since electricity is not available in the area, pumping sets are being run by diesel generators.

Residents of Biharwara and Meherkhuwa villages were facing acute crisis of drinking water as all the hand pumps had dried up.

But luck smiled on residents of these villages as PHE Department came to their rescue. The department constructed a sump tank where the water from the natural brook are collected, disinfected and then supplied to the villages. The scheme is estimated to cost Rs 24.5 lakh. Under the scheme, potable water would be supplied to these villages after laying a 2.25 kilometre long pipeline up to the villages and constructing a cistern for supplying water.

An overhead tank of 50000 litre capacity is also to be constructed so that villagers can get water with high pressure. A stop dam is also proposed to be built near the brook to ensure availability of water for a longer period. Construction of stop dam has begun while construction of overhead tank is going to start soon. Indeed, P.H.E Department's novel scheme has proved to be a boon for the residents of these perennially problem-ridden villages.

They would now see world

Four out of the five poor blind children knew no bounds of their joy when they began to see the light of the day after their eyes were operated upon, the miracle came true with the help of sensible Collector of Seoni district, Shri Anil Yadav.

One more important thing to know is that the operations were performed by a renowned eye-surgeon of Nagpur, Dr. Rajednra Vishwakarma free of cost. The fifth blind boy is being treated with the help of special glasses. The four blind boys, whose operations were successful are - Rahul Sahu, a student of first standard, Naresh Daheriya studies in IV standard, Radheshyam Daheriya in V class and Deeplal Bhalavi in VI standard. All the five children were operated upon their eyes on April 22, 2006. All of them belong to the families living below the poverty line.

It so happened that the future of the four poor children would have been full of darkness had the Seoni Collector, Shri Yadav recently in the last month not visited Ashadeep Vidyalaya. This school for the blind children is run by the social workers of the Seoni town. The Collector apprising himself of the financial condition of the five poor children said easily at once "Main Hun Na" (I am there to help them). He issued instructions to operate upon the childlren's eyes at the earliest.

The eye surgeon, Dr. Vishwakarma after the primary investigation expressed the possibility of restoring the eyesight of six out of 38 children studying in Ashadeep Vidyalaya at Dundaseoni, if their eyes were operated upon. He examined these children and fixed the date for operation on April 22. As a lot of money was required to carry out the operations and the school was unable to bear the expenditure, Dr. Vishwakarma agreed to perform the operations free of cost. At the time, the Collector also extending its helping hand sanctioned Rs. 9000 from the destitute fund to meet the expenses on the medicines.

The operations were performed on eyes of the five children and the treatment of one of the five children continued with the help of special glasses. Four children were successfully operated upon, as a result of which their faces mixed with amazement shone up when they saw the sight of the day for the first time in life.

According to Dr. Vishwakarma, blindness occurs because of the lack of knowledge of the parents alongwith malnutrition and sometimes the consumption of fluoride contained water. Three of the children had to suffer from blindness on account of malnutrition and lack of treatment said Dr. Vishwakarma.