Kasba Peth Mandal

Akash Chowkase

the rest

Summer’s wrath has sent the Marathwada region hunting for water. The state government recently sent two trains to Latur to tone down the worsening situation. Just when they are handling the worst-hit region of the state, the Ahmednagar district has shown signs of implosion. In such a situation, the citybased Ganpati mandals have pulled some villages into a comforting embrace. The Kasba mandal has taken up the task of setting up an online medical assistance at a drought-hit village in Ahmednagar whereas, the Dagdusheth Mandal has facilitated daily water supply to Purandar. A group of volunteers from Jnana Prabodhini are helping villagers from Velhe taluka to dig up wells to address water issue permanently.Thehas adopted Kandobawadi village (which has 900 villagers) from Pathardi taluka of Ahmednagar district, where recently they constructed a water tank with the capacity of one lakh litres. Speaking about their initiatives, Nilesh Vakil, treasurer of the Kasba Peth Mandal told, Mirror, “Recently, we had installed a computer laboratory in the village. Now, we are working on providing internet facility. Once it is done, we will introduce online medical assistance for the villagers.”The mandal has already procured a machine that reads ECG and blood pressure on the basis of which they plan to chart out medical advice. Few doctors from Pune and Ahmednagar have been giving assistance to the initiative. “We are also in the process of preparing medical data of all the villagers which will be available online and thus, directly accessible to the doctors,” Vakil added.The villagers have welcomed this initiative as it will cut short their travel to hospitals, which are not situated in close proximity to the settlements. One such relieved villager, AAgase, told Mirror that they had to travel almost 30 kiolmetres to avail of medical facilities in Ahmednagar. “Now, with online assistance, the doctors can probably guide us into treating the patient, if that is possible,” he said.Jnana Prabodhini’s youth wing is striving day and night to construct wells for villagers in Velhe taluka., a professor from Jnana Prabodhini and one of the coordinators on this initiative, told Mirror, “There are certain villages near Torana and Rajgad forts that are marred by severe water crisis. Providing water through water tankers would have been a temporary solution. Therefore, we decided to construct wells with the help of local villagers.”Currently, a team is working at the Gilgane village near Torana fort. Several youngsters have voluntarily approached for help.Sunil Jorkar, a local villager, said, “These wells will be a long-term solution for the water issues at the village. Since we are working hand-in-hand with the volunteers, we have developed a sort of an emotional connection with the well.”At a time where villages in Purandar taluka were drying up due to water scarcity, the Srimant Dagdusheth Halwai Ganpati Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Mandal came to their rescue by providing water on daily basis.Mahesh Suryavanshi, treasurer, said, “We are daily sending water from Pune to some of the villages in Purandar through two water tankers, an initiative that we plan to continue forof the year. We are also making sure that the water is distributed in every household.”