In the first two weeks of April, the number of those with serious conditions requiring immediate hospitalisation has gone up by at least 80 per cent.(Representational Photo/File)
Activist Ramdas Mhatre, who worked tirelessly for the welfare and upliftment of disabled people, succumbed to Coronavirus on Tuesday morning. He was 63 and is survived by his wife and two sons.
A resident of Pune city, Mhatre was admitted to a private hospital on Dehu-Moshi Road in Pimpri-Chinchwad. His close friends said they tried their best to find an oxygen-bed for him in Pune city but none of the hospital could admit him. Mhatre had comorbidities.
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“After a lot of effort, we found a hospital for him in Pimpri-Chinchwad as no other city hospital was ready to admit him. He was doing alright initially but over the last few days, his condition deteriorated and he passed away this morning,” said Manav Kamble, a friend, adding that it was only last week that Mhatre had celebrated his birthday. He was afflicted with polio in both legs in his childhood and was, therefore, confined to wheel-chair all his life.
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Mhatre, along with Kamble, founded the Jagrut Apang Sanghatna in Pune in 1981 for the welfare of disabled people. “Though he was a Class-I officer in government service, he was actively involved in the movement for the upliftment of disabled citizens,” said Kamble.
Though confined to a wheel-chair, Mhatra never lagged when it came to putting his best foot forward for the cause. He played a key role in disseminating information and creating awareness on various government schemes for the disabled. “He was a man of initiatives. He worked very hard for improving the lives of the disabled. He wanted to make sure that disabled people did not miss out on the benefits of various welfare schemes of central and state governments meant for them. He was always at the forefront when it came to organising meetings and rallies for the purpose. He constantly raised his voice against injustice and the raw deal given to the disabled population and also wrote articles in newspapers and magazines to create awareness about the plight and rights of the disabled,” recalled Kamble.
“Though he was a government officer, it did not prevent him from dedicating himself to the cause of fellow disabled citizens. He was not worried about government action. He said he was doing nothing wrong as he was only supporting governments’ bid to work for the welfare of disabled people,” Kamble said.
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Mhatre worked closely with prominent socialist leaders such as Baba Adhav, among others. “This helped our organisation work at state level as well,” Kamble added.
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
