This is an archive article published on June 25, 2016
Where is achche din, kids ask PM Modi
As many as 100 students, mostly from Shree Bhairavnath Vidya Mandir, cross the Indrayani river to reach their school in Varale village located in Maval taluka of Pune district on a dilapidated wooden boat.
Children on way to their school across the river in Varale village of Maval taluka on Friday. (Express photo by – Manoj More)
THEIR village, Varale, may be tucked away in a remote corner of the Pune district, but they are well aware of the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi “who promises acche din” is arriving in Pune on Saturday. “I regularly watch news on television. I have often heard Modiji repeating his favourite line: acche din anewale hain…,” says Tejas Bhosale, a class 10 student.
Like Tejas, his classmates and others students of Class 8 and Class 9 are seeking a “small favour” from the Prime Minister. “Can the PM help build a bridge across Indrayani river so that we don’t have to risk our lives everyday,” they say. “If the Prime Minister orders,” says Kajal Manjare, a Class 9 student “we are sure the bridge will happen overnight and our commute will be safer.” Her schoolmates—Nikita Manjare, Rutuja Jagtap, Priya Londhe—corroborate her view and wish the Prime Minister makes a short journey to their village to see how difficult their life is.
As many as 100 students, mostly from Shree Bhairavnath Vidya Mandir, cross the Indrayani river to reach their school in Varale village located in Maval taluka of Pune district on a dilapidated wooden boat. The students live in Nanoli village, which has schooling only up to Class 7. They have no option but to cross the river as otherwise, it would take them nearly an hour by foot to reach the school located across the river.
The boat is run with the help of a metallic wire slung across the river and tied to poles at both ends. The boat is pulled with the help of a nylon rope which is strapped to the metallic wire. “Twice during heavy rain last year, the nylon rope snapped. We were all scared… some of us started crying,” recalls Adinath Londhe, a class 8 student. All the boys knew how to swim but the girls didn’t.
The boat is navigated by a villager, and if he is not available, his wife does the job. If both of them are not available, the students themselves risk their lives and pull the boat in the way they desire. The boat takes less than 10 minutes to cross provided there is no drift due to strong winds, which is common in the region.
At times, it takes more time for them to cross the river if the nylon rope snaps. During monsoon, when the river is swollen — which is generally the case in July — villagers stand on both sides of the river, watching kids cross the river. Villagers says the local MLA, MP, district collector or divisional commissionerate are unperturbed.
Anusaya Borade (60), a villager, said, “Since 1972, I have watched villagers and children risk their lives every day crossing the river.”
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Suresh Marathe, a local ZP member, said,”Two decades ago, there was a plan to build the bridge. The officials and local MLA had even broken a coconut to signal the start of the bridge work. But till date, nothing has been done.” Marathe said the boat, which has outlived its utility, was provided by the Pune Zilla Parishad. “It is in a bad shape…no official boatman has been provided. An untrained village couple looks after the crossing of the boat. They get grains from villagers for their services. Varale sarpanch Santosh Marathe said,”The state government should take the initiative and build the bridge across the river.”
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More
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Children on way to their school across the river in Varale village of Maval taluka on Friday. (Express photo by – Manoj More)
