News posted by www.newsinfoline.com
Decades after Chandrakant Dalvi left his village, he came back to change the fortunes of one of the worst drought-hit areas of MaharashtraAs a child in class VIII, Chandrakant Dalvi would worry about his school, a makeshift structure in the village temple, shutting down. The sixties were tough times in Nidhal, a village in Khatav taluka of Satara district, and the school shutting down was the least of the villagers' worries. Theirs was one of the most drought-prone areas of Maharashtra and the lack of water was a constant concern. But all little Dalvi could think of was his school and his books.Cut to 1982 and the boy, now a district collector in Pune, came back to change the face of his village. Today, the school in Nidhal is one of the best in the area and the village has found a way to beat the drought.In 1982, when Dalvi was posted on probation as deputy collector of Sangli, he was called for a felicitation function at his village. "Very few people had gathered for the event since most of the families had left for the cities—Mumbai and Pune—to escape the drought. But those who turned up for the function raised the issue of the village not having a school building," recalls Dalvi, 52.So while those who could afford to leave the village had done so, the others had been left behind with exactly the same worries that Dalvi had as a boy. He then decided to change the face of the village through community participation.Nidhal is a village with a population of 3,500, of whom nearly 750 live in other cities. Dalvi took the initiative of writing to each one of them about the need for a village school and requested a donation of Rs 100 from each one of them. Those in the village were asked to contributeRs 50. In a year's time, the donations had reached Rs one lakh. Ten years later, in 1992, the village had its school, a sprawling double-storied building with 20 classrooms and 800 students.That was just the start of Dalvi's initiatives. The next task was to renovate the 300-year-old Shiva temple. "People were upbeat that they could achieve things on their own. So we started drawing out plans for Nidhal," says Dalvi.By then, the villagers were unstoppable. They pooled in money to clean up the village and won the Nirmal Gram award in 2002. The challenge was to do this in a place that faced a crippling shortage of water.But between 1999 and 2004, the village faced its worst-ever drought and Dalvi and other villagers decided they would have to find a way out. With the help of student volunteers and experts, they realised that the water in the village's three streams had to be better utilised.In October 2006, the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) sanctioned the Indo-German Watershed Development Project (IGWDP) and the villagers formed a watershed committee. The IGWDP project in Nidhal is the largest watershed development project in India in terms of acreage and project cost (Rs 1.27 crore).As part of the project, around 30 small check dams were built along the streams. While villagers provided 33 per cent of the project cost, Nabard pitched in with the rest. Nidhal had finally cracked one of its most persistent problems. Now, for 10 months a year, the small dams store water, which in turn help replenish groundwater levels. Today, Nidhal has around 500 acres of irrigated land.The achievement recently won Nidhal the 'Bhumijal Samvardhan Puraskar' for water conservation and villagers nominated Dalvi to receive the award from Union Minister of Water Resources Pawan Kumar Bansal.But Dalvi has more plans for Nidhal. "Our next target is to implement drip irrigation system to conserve water," he says. Lying next to him are two directories—one with the names and phone numbers of all non-resident Nidhal villagers and the other with details of the villagers. So even as he sits 120 km from Nidhal, he is "just a phone call away".
News posted by www.newsinfoline.com
Click here to read more news from www.newsinfoline.com
Please follow our blogs
newsinfolinephotogallery
prabugallery
newsinfolinephotogallery1
photogallery1
No comments:
Post a Comment