Handod village panchayat office; Vishal Patel (inset) sarpanch of the village

VADODARA: Owing to the corona pandemic and the stringent lockdown, Union finance ministry has extended the deadline for paying taxes to give some relief to harassed citizens. But, at the same time, a handful of Good Samaritans have gone a few steps ahead and made themselves role models in society.

Vishal Patel, the 32-year-old sarpanch of a village in Chhota Udepur, has done it exactly the same way. He has ensured that nobody in Handod village in Sankheda taluka that houses around 250 families will have to pay revenue tax or water tax amounting to Rs 1.5 lakh this year.

Patel has decided to bear the entire tax burden from his own pocket.

“I am also a farmer and my crops are also rotting on my farm. Therefore, I can understand and empathize with other hapless farmers. Waiving tax would be a burden on the gram panchayat. And so, since I have enough resources, I decided to take this step,” said Patel, who was elected around three years ago.

“Our village, although small, has also been hit due to the lockdown as there are no farm labourers nor any transportation resources available to move the farm produce,” said Patel, adding that farmers’ income has been drastically reduced in face of the crisis.

“The lockdown has reduced demand and farmers are not able to send the product to other states. We used to get Rs 200 to Rs 250 for every quintal of bananas, but now we are forced to sell them at Rs 50 for the same quantity,” said Patel, adding that the villagers are mainly into cultivation of bananas, cotton, groundnut, and maize.

Until now, no case of coronavirus has been reported in Sankheda region of the district. But Patel has ensured that even in the worst of times, he will stand by his villagers. “God forbid, if there will be any deaths due to coronavirus in our village, the family of the victim will be paid Rs 21,000 as compensation,” Patel told TOI.

