To mark the birthday of Maharashtra Rural Development minister Jayant Patil, Rajarambapu Dnyanprabodhini has launched Jayant Poverty Eradication campaign with the noble objective of elevating the economic, social and educational status of common man. Welfare of the people living below the poverty line is the focus of this campaign.
Nobel laureate Dr Mohammed Yunus nursed the dream of eradicating poverty in Bangladesh by 2020 and he is trying his best to translate that dream into reality. Seeking inspiration from him, Jayant Patil has made up his mind to eradicate poverty in his assembly constituency. Jayant Patil feels as intensely for the poor as his visionary father Loknete Rajarambapu Patil. He shares sympathy of his father for the upliftment of the poor. That is why he has started making honest effort to fulfill his dream of banishing poverty from his constituency. This must be a unique initiative as none of the public representatives in the state or even in the country must not have conceived or carried out such a visionary project. Therefore, Jayant Patil deserves praise and admiration. Walva taluka is considered to be the most progressive taluka in Maharashtra. A total of 15529 out of 75158 families in this taluka have been included by the government in the list of below poverty line (BPL). That is 20 percent families are living the life of poverty. This fact indicates discrepancies in the society. That is why out of sense of social commitment, Jayant Patil who has been representing the constituency since last 20 years and who has been Finance minister, Home minister and now Rural Development minister accepted it as the challenge to remove poverty in his constituency. Since then he started effectively implementing the projects like high quality education, health care for all, self-employment, empowerment of women among others. To make Jayant poverty eradication campaign successful and to remove economic hurdles in implementation of the campaign, the institutions like Rajarambapu Patil Co-operative sugar factory, Rajarambapu Milk federation, Rajarambapu Bank, Rajarambapu textile industrial complex, Kasegaon education society, Sakhar Kamgar INTUC union and several other institutions are actively contributing to this campaign. To ensure effective implementation of the campaign, as many as 13 divisions of Walve taluka have been created and they include 10 constituencies of zilla parishad in Walve taluka, Ashta and Islampur municipal councils and Kasbe Digraj zilla parishad constituency. Every division has 13 divisional organizers and a campaign coordinator to guide them. Besides accountant, computer operator, driver cum peon, and such 18 persons have been appointed on honorarium for administrative help. An independent office has been set up for this campaign on the premises of Rajarambapu cooperative sugar factory. Rajarambapu Dnyanprabodhini has donated one and Pawar charitable trust has donated another ‘Nationalist’ ambulance. Thus two ambulances are available for health service and the BPL families are availing them. A computerized data base of the families living below the poverty line has been built. Three photos of all families and houses each have been uploaded on the computer. The campaign has registered a website which will provide information about this campaign to anybody under the sun and this way contribution can be made and assistance provided for health, education and self-employment for those below poverty line.
All the government schemes of Gram Panchayat, Panchayat samiti, Zilla Parishad, Zilla Parishad, municipal council, state and central governments are being carried out through the cooperation of Jayant poverty eradication campaign. This has generated awareness among the people living below poverty line about their rights, privileges and duties. As a result, many are getting jobs in private, cooperative and government sectors. The pending works in the government are getting cleared fast. Free medical treatment for disease like heart ailments, kidney, cancer, and appendix is being provided to the poor and even costly operations for chronic gynecological diseases are being carried out. The students belonging to the below the poverty line families are being distributed uniforms, school bags, note books, stationary items and given other educational materials. The farmers are being provided high grade fertilizers, seeds among other facilities. Out of 15529 below poverty line families, 41239 persons have received benefits under the campaign and have availed of the facilities worth Rs 6, 95, 32, 499 by March 31, 2014.
The untiring efforts, right guidance and active coordination of all the members of the coordination committee and hard work of staffers of the campaign have proved to be instrumental in making Jayant Poverty eradication campaign successful.