The Wi-Fi-enabled Amiyawar village of Nasariganj block in Rohtas. Picture by Sanjay Choudhary

Amiyawar is a dream village in the remotest part of Rohtas district. The village offers 24-hour free Wi-Fi connectivity to its 9,500 and odd residents.

Situated beside State Highway 15 in Nasariganj block, around 165km southwest of Patna, Amiyawar has been adopted under Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana by Union minister Upendra Kushwaha to the much chagrin of the citizens of this Maoist-hit district.

Kushwaha, who represents Karakat Lok Sabha constituency in Rohtas district, is the Union minister of state for rural development in the Narendra Modi cabinet. The MP’s decision to include Amiyawar — where solar power brightens the evenings — under the scheme has evoked wide criticism from different quarters.

A petition submitted to Modi last week revealed that Amiyawar village has a school where students are enrolled up to Class VIII.

Besides Wi-Fi connectivity, the village gets 22-hour electricity supply, has concrete roads, big buildings to live in. A branch of Madhya Bihar Gramin Bank is also located nearby.

Akash Raj, a resident employed with a UK-based private firm, told The Telegraph that the residents were availing 24-hour Wi-Fi internet connectivity free of cost, thanks to the initiative of some residents who worked both in and outside the country. The village boasts of having produced over a dozen IITians, MBAs and other technocrats who were working within the country and outside.

“We decided to provide Wi-Fi connectivity to facilitate the local residents to remain connected with their near and dear ones serving in different parts of the country and aboard. We contribute a fixed amount from our salaries every month for the purpose,” Raj, who recently visited his native village, said, adding that most of the development works have been carried out with NRI funds and people’s donations.

Punit Kumar Singh and Vinit Kumar, both IITians, are in the UK while Bunty, also an engineer, is serving in the US. Ganga Kumar, another IITian, is enrolled to a Bengal-based engineering college. The village, with a population of around 9,500, also boasts of having produced judicial and Bihar administrative service officers as well. “The village has several MBA degree holders, who are well placed and getting handsome salaries,” he said.

“If there is no power, there are solar lamps to keep the houses well-lit. The solar system also helps the residents to remain connected with their relatives living in abroad through webcams installed in almost every house. The residents have now requested the MP to install a cellular tower in the middle of the village so that all the houses can avail Wi-Fi connectivity uninterrupted,” Raj said.

On the other hand, a group of residents of the district on Sunday burnt the effigy of the MP for adopting a partisan role in selection of the village under the scheme. They earlier held a meeting under the banner of Nigrani Vikas Manch to voice their concern.

“There are several villages in his constituency, which have not witnessed the light of development even after several decades of Independence,” said Ravi Kumar, an office-bearer of the organisation. Take the case of Nawadih in Dehri block. “Forget basic facilities, the residents of the village have to cover 6km to recharge their cellphones,” he added.

Amiyawar mukhiya Sunil Kumar, however, defended the MP, saying the village school should be upgraded up to Class XII and required a hospital to provide better healthcare. In addition, the village lacked a playground, clean drinking water facility. There is no ATM, which is a must as a number of residents are living abroad. “The residents have submitted a memorandum to the MP containing their 30-point charter of demands,” he said.

Rohtas district magistrate Sandeep Kumar Pudakalkatti said Amiyawar did not figure in the list of model villages. “However, it has some facilities, which other villages don’t have,” he added.

Kushwaha said Amiyawar has good infrastructure. “Only infrastructure cannot be defined as development. Our objective is to include each and every person in the development of the village where the government can work with people’s participation,” he added.

Mukhiya Sunil said: “We had requested our MP to adopt this village to make it a model village and he did it.”

Kushwaha’s case is not an isolated one. Bhola Singh, the MP from Begusarai, has adopted Simaria village under the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana. The village, the birthplace of noted Hindi litterateur Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, was declared as a model village by Bindeshwari Dubey, who was chief minister in 1983.

In addition, the village was rewarded by former President Pratibha Patil under Nirmal Gram scheme in 2008 for being equipped with facilities like school, healthcare, solar light, 22-hour electricity supply, drinking water facility and concrete roads.