Workers repair roads ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit on October 28. Picture by Uma Shankar Dubey

Rugdi, Oct. 25: Hikimchand Mahato, in his late thirties, had never heard the trill of a telephone. Now he hopes to have one in his home.

Mahato?s fate, like that of his fellow villagers in Rugdi, around 50 km from Jamshedpur, has been on an upswing ever since the tiny hamlet in Chandil block of Seraikela-Kharsawan district was picked as the place from where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will launch his ambitious food-for-work programme on Thursday.

The Rs 2,020-crore programme will provide supplementary wage employment to people living in 150 backward districts. It is centrally sponsored and will provide cash and grain, free of cost, to farmers. Until a week ago, the tribal village of 100 families did not have proper roads, electricity, irrigation facility or telephones. But suddenly all that has changed.

The village is bustling with activity, important officials are paying regular visits and like the fairy godmother in Cinderella, someone has waved a magic wand to make things happen.

Biswanath Mahato, now 70, says that never in his wildest dream had he thought that Rugdi would change.

Rugdi got a telephone exchange a few kilometres away seven years ago, but there was not a single telephone in the village. Now at least 10 homes in the hamlet are expected to get telephone connections. Hikimchand has applied for one and he will have it.

Flanked by the multi-crore Subarnarekha Multipurpose Project on one side and Palna reservoir on the other, the village had no irrigation facility. But on Thursday, the Prime Minister will inaugurate a check dam.

?Everything in the village has seen a sea-change. Till October 18, the road leading to the village from National Highway 33 as well as the bylanes have been repaired, a check dam is being constructed, the telephone department has laid the cable and power officials have started the work of electrification,? says Biswanath. ?Sirf saat din mein duniya badal gaya (Our world has changed in seven days).?

The old farmer has lost standing rice crop as a small portion of his agricultural land had to be acquired for making the enclosure for Singh?s visit, but he doesn?t mind. ?May the Prime Minister come everyday to the village and stand over my plot of land. I am ready to lose a part of my crop if it leads to such development,? he said.

Bimalchand Mahato, a contemporary of Biswanath, agreed. ?Government officials, who have never come to the village before, are on their toes,? he said.

Junior telecom engineer of Chandil B.K. Singh said a telephone cable from the local exchange to Rugdi, a distance of about three km, has been laid in two days.

?After the Prime Minister returns, we will provide connection to 10 villagers who are willing to get a telephone connection. We have also installed a special mobile tower for cellphone users,? he said.

An officer of the irrigation department said the check dam will provide water round the year to Rugdi and the neighbouring villages of Singati, Kardih and Khuliadih.

Sources in the Prime Minister?s Office (PMO) said Rugdi was chosen as the launchpad for two reasons: it is part of a distress-prone area and it was earlier decided that the programme would take off from a backward area of northern India.