Describing veteran social activist Anna Hazare’s native village of Ralegan-Siddhi as a “walking university”, Maharashtra Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar says that 27 villages in the Naxalite-infested district of Chandrapur in eastern Maharashtra will be developed along the lines of Ralegan-Siddhi and Hiware Bazar in Ahmednagar district of western Maharashtra.
Addressing a gathering of local people after seeing the various developmental initiatives at Ralegan Siddhi along with Hazare, Mungantiwar said, “Ralegan Siddhi is a walking university and based on its motivation, efforts will be made to achieve ideal villages in Vidarbha”.
Mungantiwar, who was accompanied by 27 Sarpanchas, deputy Sarpanchas and Gram Sevaks from his native district of Chandrapur district, said, “These elected are taking motivation from the development initiatives taken in these two villages. Hazareji has united the entire community. He has made Ralegan-Siddhi an ideal and self sufficient village. This village is ideal even in terms of happiness. We have taken up a mission to develop 27 villages in Chandrapur district of Vidarbha region on the lines of model villages like Ralegan Siddhi and Hiware Bazar”.
Ralegan Siddhi and Hirwekar, which were once perennially drought-hit villages, have seen phenomenal transformation over the years because of water conservation and drip irrigation. It was Hazare who transformed the face of Ralegan Siddhi, a relatively young sarpanch Popatrao Baguji Pawar (born in 1960) has successfully replicated the development initiatives taken by veteran social activist to develop his native village.
Mungantiwar visited the temples, farm ponds, watershed projects, afforestation scheme and other project sites in Ralegan-Siddhi which he wants to replicate in Chandrapur district.
Dwelling upon his plans for Chandrapur district, Mungantiwar said: “Chandrapur is the bordering district in the State. It has large forest area, high tribal population and it has a lot of scope for development in terms of human development index. Out of 15 blocks in this district, 11 blocks are backward in terms of human development index. I am confident that public representatives and gram sevaks from Chandrapur will take motivation from these ideal villages”.
Speaking on the occasion, Hazare said that five factors went into creating confidence among the villagers regarding the public servants. “The five factors are: action coupled with words, pure character, attitude of sacrificing, moral behaviour, moral thoughts and patience to tolerate disrespect. If you have these qualities, people are automatically get motivated to undertake social work,” he said.