Er. H. R Phonsa
Babu Ji was born on 10th August 1932, to late Jaggu Ram and Smt Matyan Devi; both of whom were deeply religious souls, having deep faith in Sant Mat as expounded by Saints of Radha Soami Satsang Beas .Village Sarore is largely in-habited by the followers of Radha Soami Satsang, following strict norms of Sant Mat. This village like any other rural villages has earned distinction to be the birth place of Baba Sant Rasila Ram Ji the present Head of Baba Teja Singh Radha Soami Ashram Saidpur Distt Amritsar (Punjab). Babu Ji was brought up in an atmosphere full of spirituality, so he followed and practised principle of “Love all, hate none”. Babu Ji from his early school days was hard – working, punctual, brilliant but poised boy. He had to travel a distance of over four miles to go to his school bare-footed. But poverty and vagaries of weather could not deter him from his determination to get educated. During those days education was rare, particularly for rural Dalits, as only a few lucky were privileged to go to schools, schools being only a few in number. His will to succeed brought laurel when he passed his M.A. LL.B degrees with flying colures. Parmanand was perhaps, one of the first Dalits from J and K State to acquire such higher qualifications before 1958. He also appeared in the State Civil Services Examination1960, earning ninth position. During his student life, he was taking active part in politics particularly as a student leader. He was always ready to help and guide the needy students. His efforts earned scholarships to many students from his area and community and a hostel wing was added to GGM Sc. College Jammu Hostel exclusively for the Dalit students. He was inclined from the very beginning to politics. His strong will to become a public representative, won him his maiden elections from Ramgarh (reserved) Constituency in 1962, general election. This was his first leap towards his chosen goal. He continued to win elections till 1990. He had the proud privilege to serve as Minister for various Departments including Transport, Local Bodies and Local Self Government, Housing, Power and Finance. Babu Ji served as Speaker of Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly when internationally known Sher-e Kashmir Sheikh Mohd. Abdullah was the Chief Minister. Due his qualities of head and heart Babu Ji was appointed as Governor and he took the oath for the same on 19th July 2000 in the Haryana Raj Bhawan Chandigarh.
On 6th May 1962 Babu ji got married to Sudesh Kumari, daughter of Lala Munshi Ram of Jalandhar town of Punjab. Lala Munshiram was a well to do sports businessman, who had migrated from Sailkot (Now in Pakistan ) to India during 1947 turmoil. Babu Ji was blessed with two equally brilliant sons.
Babu Ji served on different political and social organisations viz. Organiser Depressed Classes League, Founding President of J and K unit of Bhartiya Dalit Sahitya Akademi, Indian National Congress, the National Conference and Bhartiya Janata Party etc. He served as director to various banks. He had close contacts with Babu Jagjivan Ram, Sher-e Kashmir Sheikh Mohd. Abdullah, Dr K.R Narayan and Giani Zail Singh both Presidents of India, Atal Behari Vajpayee, General K.V Krishna Rao ( Retd) ,G.C Sexsena, Dr. Farooq Abdullah Dr. Karan Singh and a host of other Indian leaders, administrators, jurists, religious heads of different religions etc.
Babu Ji started fortnightly news paper The Voice of the Depressed. He wrote editorials which were acclaimed as best of his times. While launching the Voice of the Depressed Babu Ji wrote “The Voice of the Depressed will give coverage to programmes and schemes floated for the benefit of people living below poverty line, welfare of SCs/ ST’s, OBC, small farmers, village artisans, landless, shelter less, unemployed, and living in bad pockets. It shall work as watch dog to proper and full utilisation of funds earmarked for poverty alleviation, provision of employment and failures of administration. The paper shall try to provide feed up of ground work and ground realities so that the authorities can take cognisance and apply corrective measures”.
While writing in The Voice of the Depressed dated 15th December, 1997, he elaborately dealt with the developmental activities being carried on in India. He mentioned about the various development programmers being carried by the governmental agencies for the intended benefits of the deprived and neglected section of the Indian society. Starting with the launching of Community Development Programme (CDP) on 2nd October,1952 the Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, Babu Ji counted almost all welfare program launched till 1997. He narrated that Indra Gandhi launched Twenty Point Programme to remove poverty and improve the economic lot of the common man. Indra Awas Yojna ( IAY) in1983 and Jawahar Rozgar Yojna ( JRY) with great fanfare. This was followed by Fifteen Point Programme welfare of the minorities formulated in May1983 and launched subsequently by Rajiv Gandhi and V.P Singh. Then P.V. Narsimha Rao launched from Red Fort Social Security Schemes and Mid Day Meals. When H.D Devgwda held the Government of India reigns, he decided to implement Common Minimum Programme consisting of 11 Points. He also announced provision of the rations at half the rates to the families living below the poverty line. Babu Ji further counted other programmes launched like Panchayati Raj Institutions, Hill Area Development Programme, Small farmers Development agency, Marginal Farmers and Agriculture Labourers Programme, Draught Prone area Programme, Deseret Development Programme, Applied Nutrition Programme, Land Reforms , Tribal Area Development Programme, Pilot Intensive Rural Employment Project Integrated Rural Development Programme, National Ex. Rural Employment Programme, Training for Self Employment Of Rural Youth, Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas, National Social Assistance Programme, Intensive Jawahar Rozgar Yojna, Million Well Scheme, Integrated Waste Land Development Project, Employment Gaurantee Scheme and Revamped Public Distribution System.
While commenting on the achievement of the set goals through these various programmes, Babu Ji expressed “But unfortunately all these programmes and schemes have failed to remove poverty, illiteracy,unemployment, hungerand disease, and the general view is that about 70 crores of the Indians are still suffering from economic slavery and are denied proper education, proper food and clothing and reasonable shelter.——————– none of the twenty points, fifteen points, eleven points programmes have removed the poverty and the common man is not in a position to get even basic amenities of life much less true independence from hunger, shelter and unemployment.” Babu Ji continued to further write in his paper ” The funds allocated for these programmes and schemes are misused for want of impartial identification of the real beneficiaries at the village level and major part of the these allotments is shared by various agencies connected with the preparation and implementation of these programmes and schemes. Only 20 per cent money has reached the real beneficiaries and the rest is pocketed by the government machinery, banks/financial institutions and contractors/ favorites of the political bosses in power”. Babu Ji in his write up gave thought to the causes of failure of these programmes and schemes. The multiplicity of schemes by creating various layers of execution often complicates the execution by making the system cumbersome. The same invariably creates problems during the execution of schemes. The number of such schemes being directly supervised or implemented through the office of the District Magistrate (DM) or the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) wherein DM has significant role in ensuring proper implementation of these schemes is endless. This single handed supervision it self over loads the DM’s work load. The DMs remain involved in the law and order problems and host of other functions assigned to them, so the implementation of welfare and development schemes suffer.
(To be continued)
