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This is an archive article published on June 30, 2024

Scramble for darshan as Sant Tukaram palkhi arrives in Pimpri-Chinchwad’s Kasarwadi-Nashik Phata

The Sant Tukaram Maharaj palkhi will move towards Pune city on Sunday afternoon.

Sant Dnyaneshwar Maharaj Palkhi procession began the journey from Alandi on Saturday. (Express Photo By Pavan Khengre)The Palkhi procession began the journey from Alandi on Saturday. (Express Photo By Pavan Khengre)

As the Sant Tukaram Maharaj palkhi (palanquin) arrived in Kasarwadi-Nashik Phata area in Pimpri-Chinchwad on Sunday, people who had lined up on both sides of the Pune-Mumbai highway scrambled for a darshan and a few of them even got hurt in the rush.

Like every year, the palanquin left Akurdi, where it had stayed overnight after leaving the temple town of Dehu on Saturday. Accompanied by scores of warkaris, the palkhi left Akurdi around 5 am.

The people of Akurdi had made arrangements for the overnight stay of the palkhi. Food and refreshments were provided by local people,” said Iklas Sayyed, a local resident.

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The palanquin then arrived at HA Grounds, where the warkaris were provided refreshments by local residents, and left around 9 am. As it moved on to the Pune-Mumbai highway, a huge crowd on both sides desperately tried to get a darshan, with people jostling with one another a few of them even tripping to the ground.

But the spirit was seen to be believed and the police found it difficult to control the crowds.

At Nashik Phata, people from Bhosari, Pimple Guarav, Pimple Saudagar, Rahatni, Kasarwadi had assembled. Many occupied the triple flyover at Nashik Phata Chowk to get a bird’s eye view and capture the moment on their mobile phones.

Right from Vallabhnagar, Nashik Phata to Kasarwadi, a sea of humanity thronged the streets. And many Good Samaritans distributed water bottles, bananas, biscuits, fruit and tea among the warkaris who moved along their dindis.

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Like every year, several residential societies along the Pune-Mumbai highway provided food to the warkaris. Jitendra Shah, a local resident, said, “More than 500 warkaris arrived on our Goyal Residency premises. We have been taking care of the warkaris for more than 10 years now. We had collected contributions from our society members to provide the warkaris with food .

The Sant Tukaram Maharaj palkhi reached Dapodi around 11 am. It will stay put for lunch and move towards Pune city in the afternoon.

Meanwhile, the Sant Dnyaneshwar Maharaj palkhi, which took off from Alandi around 7.30 am, reached Magazine Chowk at Dighi around 11 am.

Because of the huge rush, the palkhi arrival was delayed at Magazine Chowk. Normally, it arrives around 9 am,” said Anna Bodade, Deputy Municipal Commissioner, Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation.

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The Sant Dnyaneshwar Maharaj palanquin will also reach Pune city by late afternoon.

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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