BIJNOR: A 38-year-old engineer finds a comfortable job abroad, comes home to see his village riddled with problems and decides to stay back to help improve the situation. This is not the plot of the 2004 Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Swades but the life story of Bijnor’s Jhujhela village resident Tarun Shekhawat. Tarun has worked as an engineer for over 12 years in companies like Tech Mahindra, TCS and many others — in India and abroad. But a recent visit to his village, which lacks basic amenities, made him change his mind. He filed various RTIs to know why nothing was done to improve the condition of the village and found gross irregularities in the use of government funds. To change the way things work in his village, Tarun left his 4500 euro per month (nearly Rs 37 lakh per annum) job in Munich, Germany, and is now in fray for the post of the village head in the forthcoming village pradhan elections.

“Only if the village heads work with honesty, India’s villages will also become as progressive as villages in Germany and the rest of Europe,” said the techie whose family is into farming.

Tarun, who worked in Germany for four years, told TOI, “During my stay there, I observed how villages are developed there. During one of my visits to my native village, I found that here we do not have even basic amenities. I left my job and planned to stay back in India. I joined a company in Noida and kept frequenting my village to improve its lot. But with time, I realized that the best way to make a change is to be a part of the system, so I decided to contest the panchayat elections.”

Tarun is hugely popular in the village. “I filed RTI queries to find out how funds meant for development were bungled by previous village heads in connivance with local officials. If I become the pradhan, I will utilize all the funds honestly and will change the face of my village. I am sure my villagers will give me an opportunity to do all the good work I have planned so far,” he said.

Naazir Ansari, a villager, told TOI, “Tarun is the most educated person in the entire village. It feels good to see that there are some people like Tarun who gain experience and come back to their native village in order to bring about a change. I wish he wins.”