Ritu, a labourer’s college-going daughter, has just learnt to fly, to taste the freedom of the open skies and soar as high as she possibly can. The sky is her limit. The wind beneath her wings, unknowingly, is her college - Dr BR Ambedkar Government College, the first in the district carved out in 1989.

The eldest of six siblings, Ritu, pursuing her BBA at the college, explains how. Despite a score of 79 per cent in class XII, her parents were against her decision to pursue studies. Their family’s financial position did not permit “wasteful expenditure”.

“Since we hardly get to sleep on a full stomach everyday, a private college was out of question and the nearest government college was an hour’s run. Had it not been for this college, I would have been at home, thinking of the bus I missed,” she mumbles as tears roll down her cheeks.

She may not be the poster girl for a development story unfolding in a district embraced in a circle of paddy fields but she definitely is the “common man” whose life the district’s first government college has touched along with most of the 1,000 other students coming from the “have-not” section of society.

Five years ago, her dreams would have crashed even before they took flight. And, many did because successive state governments, including the Congress, failed its people. Kaithal, with more than 10 lakh population, remained on the back burner.

Now, as the fruits of development flow in, people feel a wrong is finally being set right by PWD Minister and local MLA Randeep Singh Surjewala.

A number of small initiatives at the district headquarters have now made a difference to their lives.

Ask any of the 400-odd residents who religiously head to a new park for their morning walks or the farmers who have direct access to the new ‘anaj mandi’, courtesy a flyover, or the patients getting quality health care at the multi-speciality hospital and they all vouch for the development “their MLA” has ushered in over the past nearly two years to change the map of his constituency.

The development ball, however, was set rolling after 2005 when Randeep’s father, Shamsher Singh Surjewala, was elected from the seat on a Congress ticket. That is when potholes began to vanish from the roads, streetlights began to light up and most of the projects were approved. Since then, Kaithal has turned a new leaf.

“Kaithal was a district long ignored by successive governments sans any primary indices. While ours was the only district in the state without a government college, we did not have a meaningful district hospital. The projects were an outcome of necessity and led to the emergence of the district which now has a private university, too,” said Surjewala.

“We are trying to address one thing at a time and doing our best to make life easy for the common man,” he added.

He personally reviews the ongoing projects from time to time, which shows that taking initiative is not about being pushy or aggressive but about recognising the responsibility to make things happen.

That is probably why Randeep’s rivals, too, credit him for that.

“Kaithal district has been deprived for decades. In fact, after the demise of Om Prabha Jain, an MLA in 1960s, nothing came to us. Things are finally beginning to look up now though sewerage and sanitation need to be addressed on a priority and the periphery of the district could do with better infrastructure. Also, unless industry comes to Kaithal, this will slip with time,” BJP’s Ravi Bhushan said. He contested the 2009 Assembly elections against Randeep as did INLD’s Kailash Bhagat who feels that though investment in infrastructure has happened and small initiatives have changed their way of life in and around the city, their benefits are yet to fully flow to the people and be uniformly spread all over.

“Though the hospital is a good initiative, doctors are in short supply. Health services in other parts of the district could be given an overhaul. Though a lot of development has happened in Kaithal over the past few years, it is time now to take it to the rest of the district as well,” he added. Hardeep Singh, an advocate, said while the city had got a facelift, the villages were still in dire need of attention. “Essentially an agrarian district, farming is crucial to its economy. However, the villages lack concrete roads which make it painstaking for the farmers to reach the ‘anaj’ mandi. Some attention needs to be given to this aspect as well because our villages are still in dire need of upliftment,” he said. So, while Kaithal constituency housing the district headquarters has witnessed sustained development, the Assembly seats of Pundri, Gulha and Kalayat in the remaining district are still on the fringes of development and awaiting their due.