Delhi is known as one of the best metro cities with better transport facility and infrastructure such as highways, expressways, flyovers, widened roads, metros and public bus facility but, even after that, there are some ‘rural villages’ in the national Capital which lacks basic amenities, transport and infrastructure facilities. Qutubh Garh, Katewara, Nazafgarh, Jharoda Kalan, Savda Ghevra, Ramzanpur, Harevali, Ghogha Gaon, Swatantra Nagar, Tajpur, Burari Gaon, Wazirabad, are among those rural areas that hanker for better transport facility as the frequency of  bus service in these places remains very low. As a result, people are forced to wait for over 30 minutes to one hour to board a DTC run buses.

These are some villages where there is no metro connectivity and if some areas do have metro, but that is quite far from these villages. Moreover, the problem is with the villages being situated on the borders of Delhi and the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) bus frequency is sparse to this part of the city.

“I live here in Nazafgarh and the metro connection to the areas is till Dwarka Mor. After that one have to take an auto-rickshaw or RTV buses as the area do not have 24 hours Government bus facility. My daughter studies in a college located in Netaji Nagar and from there she has to change three buses to reach home. The route number 578 is the only bus that has a direct route to this place and frequency of this bus is somewhat 3-4 times. Now, I have admitted my child in a hostel because safety is also another issue in this city,” said Inderjeet Sherawat, resident of Nazafgarh.

When The Pioneer visited the areas and found that the villages such as Nazafgarh, Burari, Wazirabad and others lacks transport and infrastructure facility as well as traffic jams is also major problem in these areas.

The  residents of these villages say that earlier about 120 buses were plying from Bawana bus depot but the frequency has registered a sharp decline. “The chaos and problems of these villages and the inhabitants always becomes an issue during every election, only to be forgotten later. Roads are filled with potholes and the bus shelters are in a dilapidated condition too,” said Prashant Mishra, a resident of Burari Gaon, North Delhi.

The rural villages Karawal Nagar, Chauhanpatti and Subhar Pur do not have the access to DTC bus services. Also, the metro stations are also too far from these areas. Besides, Kaadipur, Mukhmelpur, Bhaktawarpur and Burari Gaon are some areas where people completely depends on rickshaw, Grahmin Sewa, share auto’s and RTV buses.

The other villagers and farmers stressed that “During every elections the leaders make promises that they will free us (the farmers) from the ‘section 81’ but all these leaders and their promises are fake.

As per the Section 81, the famers should only do faming and use his/her land for only agricultural purpose, if failed or anyone uses the land for any other purposes such as construction of houses instead of farming on the respected land, the government will encroach upon their land and submit its rights to the Gramsabha.

Not only transport services, the health services in these villages needs urgent attention from the authorities. They yearn for a community hall for marriages while for some of them, encroachment  remains a major issue.

There are about 112 rural villages in the Delhi; most of them fall in the parliamentary constituencies such as North-west, North-East, South, South and West Delhi. Many of these villages have been urbanised and some have also been adopted by the Member of Parliaments (MPs)

 “Both Congress and AAP have used these people to win the election but they did not improve the transport and infrastructure facility in these areas. Even there are villages where still the 10 year old buses are in service which is a violation of norms.

AAP has not increased the buses in Delhi since it came to power,” said BJP leader and spokesperson Praveen S Kapoor.

There around 5500 buses (including both DTC and Cluster) in the Delhi and the government has proposed to purchase 3000 more buses in its budget speech this year.