First CDS Bipin Rawat's ancestral village gets road connectivity, healthcare facilities

New Delhi: The ancestral village of India’s first Chief of Defence Staff, the late Bipin Rawat, in Uttarakhand’s Pauri Garhwal district is emerging on the country’s development map with the building of roads, healthcare and vocational education facilities.

A Maharashtra-based NGO, Dr. Harivanshrai Bachchan Prabodhan Pratishthan (HBPP), is spearheading efforts to carry out development activities in the Saina village, which lacked road connectivity and was accessible only through a narrow pathway until recently.

Besides building roads to Saina village, the HBPP, with support of the Uttarakhand government, has also helped in the construction of public toilets, building water tanks for irrigation purposes and piped water supply to households, HBPP founder Nivrutti Yadav told PTI here.

The state government has also approved building a panchayat office, install solar lights in the village, and nurture a litchi and mango orchard on one hectare land in the village, he said. Yadav said he was now pursuing converting the first CDS’s ancestral home into a memorial dedicated to the decorated military officer, and build a statue of General Rawat in the village.

The HBPP has distributed school books and bicycles to students, provided first aid kits and installed a sanitary napkin vending machine in the village. Madhulika Rawat Tailoring Training School for providing vocational training to women in the village has also started functioning at Saina, Yadav said.

Gen Rawat, after taking over as the Chief of Army Staff, had visited his village Sain with his wife Madhulika on April 29, 2018 and told his uncle Bharat Singh Rawat that he had requested the state government to provide direct road connectivity to the village. Gen Rawat was appointed the Chief of Defence Staff on January 1, 2020.

Gen Rawat, his wife and members of his staff died in a helicopter crash in Tamil Nadu on December 8 last year.

According to Yadav, HBPP has been carrying out social activities for the past 18 years and had also sent relief material to Uttarakhand during the 2013 Kedarnath floods.