TARGET OLYMPICS . . .

INDIA BAGS ONE MORE GOLD !!!

16th Aug. 2008 (News Agency) Beijing, India Continued its Golden Trail in the Olympics as Tejasvini Sawant of Kolhapur brought third gold medal in the 10 meter shooting competition held at 'Beijing Shooting Range Hall' in Shijingshan District of Beijing. India has already bagged Gold for Tennis & Swimming. Two of the three medals are won by players from Kolhapur, a town in Western Maharashtra. Today every Kolhapur citizen feels proud to be a part of the Land where these great players belong.

People wake up its still 2006.
If you feel that this could be what you read one fine morning, then keep your fingers crossed. The ground realities at Kolhapur have a different story to tell. We all know that Young Stars of Kolhapur - Tejasvini Sawant, Veerdhawal Khade, Rucha Pujari, Navnath Phartade, Mandar Diwase, Radhika Barale, Soniya Patil, Arpana Magdum, Sandeep Tarte, Kapil Narang etc. have brought a lot of fame in games like Shooting, Swimming & Chess. Though Kolhapur is most famous for Wrestling (Kusti) & Football to some extent, these players have shown what the soil of Kolhapur is capable to produce. But there are far more infrastructural facilities that need to be provided if we want to see any of these perform and win at Beijing. Though Government has provided these young stars with financial help and other facilities, but there’s a lot more required for them to compete at International level. For instance the Shooters need an A.C. Shooting Range to practice. We do have a Shooting Training Centre (Chhatrapati Shambhaji STC) but it’s facing loads of issues these days. What is required is Basic Facilities, Advance Training & Specialist Trainers to carve beauty of these virgin diamonds. Swimmers need a well equipped swimming pool with all the facilities and able guidance. Chess requires international training and best of Brain trainers. So in one line Kolhapur needs a complete Sports Centre with facilities for all types of sports and who knows the above news may read 12 medals for Kolhapur.

And before we end, one more dream -
Kolhapur will host INDIA - PAKISTAN One day match during World Cup 2011.

Keep praying guys . . . . Who Knows !!!

Ganpati Bappa Morya. . .

Kolhapur like few other Maharashtrian cities has a very high repute of celebrating GANESH FESTIVAL in style. This time we have just emerged from the heavy pouring rains and the high flowing rivers but still the city continues the spirit of celebration. Ganesh Idols were established at Homes since early Sunday morning, while the Mandals (communities) continued their processions till very late night. The various scenes ( DEKHAVE ) prepared by numerous Mandals are the highlight of Kolhapuri Ganesh Festival. Some Mandals have a repute of opening their scene for Public since the first day of Ganpati, so they continued the trend and we got a glimpse of the few of such Mandals. While members of other groups are keeping very busy in preparing the Scenes. Usually these Mandals open for general public viewing from the next day of Gori Ganpati Viserjan as the House hold Ganpati Idols are immersed in River on that day. People then can enjoy the festival for remaining four days till Anant Chathurti. This time Viserjan is on 6th (saturday) while Anant Chaturthi on Wednesday. So some Mandals have decided to open their dekhave from 6th itself & the members have started to work accordingly. Some Mandals especially from Mangalwar Peth & Shivaji Peth areas do live scence, thus are busy rehearsing them and preparing sets for the same. Others show artistic & attractive stage & pandal (tent) decoration.

Now for some serious issues - The roads of Kolhapur as we wrote some time back are not in proper condition to hold the visherjan procession of the Ganpatis. The latest news is that State Govt. has sanction a fund of Rs.2,60,00,000/- ( YES 2 Crore 60 Lakhs) for reconstruction of roads of Kolhapur. The quest now is to see whether the said work will be completed before 6th September. Another blunder needed to be brought forward that a proposed Jetty on Panchganga Ghat to stage comfort of immersion process received a fund of Rs.25,00,000 (25 LAKHS) but later it was thought that the Ghat will only be used once a year and its not worth to spend such a amount on it. Thus members of KMC diverted the funds in development of Rankala Lake (we all know what development). Thus the Proposed Jetty continues to be what it was... a proposal.

Don't miss the coverage of Ganpati Festival of Kolhapur on www.kolhapurworld.com

The Sindhu World

Coming up on 26th of this month during the "Janam Satapdi Mahotsav" of Saint Swami Shantiprakash Maharaj, a new website http://www.thesindhuworld.com/ that is dedicated entirely to Sindhi Community all over the world. The testing version of the website was launched on 15th August on the occasion Mukti Parv Samagam held at Nirankari Bhavan Gandhinagar, Kolhapur. This site was initially intended to provide information about the Sindhi Community residing at Gandhinagar, the business sub-hub of Kolhapur. But in due course of development the designers thought of increasing the scope of site to whole sindhi community rather than only concentrating on one particular area. The website comprises of 150+ pages and promises to be on of the leading website about Sindhi Culture. The various aspects that this website covers are - Sindhi Special, Shree Ganesh, Guru Granth, Prem Prakash, Nirankari Mandal, Bhakti Yoga, Sindhi Institutions, Sindhi Directories & More. One more interesting feature of the website is the superb collection of biographies. The site covers life history of numerous people ( Sindhi of course ) from various fields such as Spritual, Politcal, Sports, Business, Social Service and more. A brief into of the local Sindhi Personalities is also provided.

We have a developed a website mean while covering the business aspect of Gandhinagar, http://www.gandhinagarworld.com/ . This website provides the contact details of various business outlets at Gandhinagar and the products they deal in.

We wish the makers of http://www.thesindhuworld.com/ all the very best for thier venture and eagerly await the lauching. The website will be launched at L.D.Lawns, Gandhinagar Kolhapur on 26th August 8.00 p.m. at the august hands of Swami Dev Prakash Maharaj.

And heres a Picture of the launch of the testing version . . .

Roads of Kolhapur

The present day condition of the Rain Struck roads of Kolhapur reminds me of a scene from the Hollywood Blockbuster MATRIX. When Neo is taken to see the Oracle & is waiting in the lounge, he sees some children playing. One of them bends a spoon with the gaze of his eyes. When he hands over the spoon to Neo he says "Don't try to bend the spoon its impossible, In fact realise the truth - There is no Spoon" So next time you drive on Kolhapur Roads, Don’t try to avoid the pot holes and drive on the road in fact realise the truth - "There is no Road".

This time it’s also the weather apart from KMC to be blamed for the conditions of the road. However it has now been evident that the roads were not prepared to take on the rains. The question that now arises is "Was it not possible for KMC to prepare the roads accordingly especially after the rainy experience last year?" But as usual the answer to this question also is not expected. We all know what was the Corporation busy with prior to the rains. Now the issue that must be held with priority is the repairs (oops wrong word) reconstruction of the damaged (wrong again) missing roads. Now we will have to wait and see how much time it will take for the roads to be worth using again. Till then the vehicles will have to suffer a lot. Also the bikers will have to cope up with the Back Pains arising due to bad roads. Though the leading newspapers have published an article here and there about the Roads and Jobs of KMC, but still much stress has not been given on the time limit for the same. Currently it seems that the corporation is waiting for the Long rainy season to get over and the roads of deteriorate to their fullest before undertaking any works. We the people who are directly affected with the conditions of the road have nothing to do but to wait for the authorities to take action. On the contrary if the citizens decide and take the issue by head, we can surely hasten the development of the main roads of city and thus make the city worth living.

Oh and yes a rose amongst the thorns, the completed NH4 has faced the Rains without showing much signs of stress and damage. So at least the Road connecting the city with other majors has stood. Also celebrated is the spirit of KOLHAPUR that makes every citizen work and try for the betterment of City no matter whether the Rains pour or the Roads bend.

Is Kolhapur on the Right Track ?

Kolhapur as we all know happens to be one of the highest income generating places but when it comes to Development and Basic Facilities Kolhapur is always given a step motherly treatment. What we will be talking now is not based on pure passion of being a Kolhapurkar but on concrete study of government policies, decisions , declarations and actual works.

To begin with lets us talk about the basic facilities :

Water - Some findings of UNO in a survey which was conducted long back are firstly Panchganga river, from where the drinking water is supplied to Kolhapur City, is one of the ten rivers in the world which are having highest polluted water & secondly Kolhapur is one of the twelve cities in the world which are getting polluted water drinking purpose. These findings were produced in Mumbai High Court Case Writ Petition No. 979 of 1997 Dhanajirao Jivarao Jadhav & others Vs. State of Maharashtra & others: Decided on 16.7.1997. In the rulings of this case M.B. Shah, C.J. and R.J. Kochar, J.had mentioned that the State Government has accepted a scheme for supply of drinking water to the city of Kolhapur directly from Katlammawadi Dam by closed pipelines. Now it has been more than nine long years today, has kolhapur heard of anything called water supply directly from the dam ? Oh and yes by the way, Aurangabad gets water through a 120 KM pipeline from Jaikwadi Dam.

Health - Shocking as it may sound but more than 1500 people die every year of Jaundice in Kolhapur city alone. Apart from that diseases like gastro-enteritis, diarrhoea, dysentery and fever are on increase and number of deaths on account of such diseases have been reported. Though the C.P.R. has upgraded the facilities it provides but still the conditions of patients is the general ward is pathetic and contemptuous. Apart from this no other Government institution provides health related services. Apart from that we haven't seen much of Health Awareness Campaigns around.

Roads - Now this also is a very interesting subject to talk of or rather talk off. It took 10 years for the integrated road development project to be passed. It was passed finally though it has not been implemented as yet. The official website of MSRDC (www.msrdc.org) has an IRD program for Kolhapur City the scope of which covers -

1. Existing SH - 128 that outskirt the city is proposed to be developed as a ring road (approx. length 30 km)

2. ROB near Temblai Naka

3. Pedestrian Subways at -

A. Gangavesh Chowk

B. Dabholkar Corner

C. Khasbaug Maidan Chowk

D. Venus Corner

4. Improvement to internal roads connecting to Ring Road and Construction of toll plaza.

The more important thing is that the Present Status of Project reads as under -

"The IRDP Kolhapur project was planned by MSRDC as stated above but during the meeting held by Hon. Minister P.W. (P.U.) Shri. Anil Deshmukh along with KMC authorities and local MLA’s on 21.05.2005 it was decided that the KMC will propose certain changes according to their requirements in the originally planned IRD project and accordingly the remodeled portion of IRDP Kolhapur with details will be posted shortly"

As you may notice that the said meeting has been conducted more that a Year Before. Now if the site says the estimated time required for completion of the Project is 3 years does the Authorities believe that the actual work will only take a week or Two.

Education - Now this again is an important aspect of the Study. There are a very few Government colleges as compared to the Private Ones. The Governement Medical College ( CPR ) has also started very recently, very late as compared to certain other districts of the State. However we do have a University which means we have good number of affiliated colleges and thus atleast basic education facilities but that is the same quite a few other districts as well.

Pollution - Its the Sugar & Leather Industries that bring a lot of Money & pride to Kolhapur but its this very industries that also bring along Pollution with them. The drainage system aslo needs no explaination as the news of sewage water from Jayanti Nala mixing into River Panchganga has become so common that it has not remained news any more. The number of vehicles is also increasing, Kolhapur is very famous for the Number of latest four wheelers it has. The condition of roads and the unplaned traffic control causes the vehicles to perform poorly and thus add to the Pollution.

Well what we will be doing now is we will be taking each of the above mentioned isssues seprately. After doing a study and collecting information, when we finish with all the major issues we plan to find out some legal remedy for all this.

We hope, suppose , think , beleive and know that every Kolhapukar will assist us in making Kolhapur a better place to be . . . .

Rains , Rains & More Rains !!!

Kolhapur over the past few weeks has faced a heavy rainfall. Though the situation has not worsen as much as the neighbouring Sangli & Satara. But still rains have affected a lot of places especially small villages located on the banks of river Panchganga. Also in some villages of Shirol and nearby places the water flowing from Koyna Dam at 44823 Q/Sec has also caused a lot if trouble.There are a few small and big Dams build across the path of the river flow helping to check the nuisance caused by flowing water. While writing this Radhanagri Dam was reported to dipose off 3200 Q/Sec water while the water level was 36 ft at the rajaram dam of Kolhapur. Lots of villages lost contact, many are relocated to safer places and much is being done to prevent the damage caused by the daffling rains. Last year we saw one of the heaviest rains which resulted in Flood and caused a very damage. However though this year we have more rains as compare to last year, but this time the rain is not pouring continously. After 2-3 days of Heavy non stop showers we have a couple of days of soft rains. This has provided the city with some relief as the routine life in not distrubed much. This time the machinery was prepared for relief and resque, so help of Miltary, Para-Miltary and other teams was at Hand. Learning from last years Experiance some villages which were prone to suffer were provided assistance even prior to the rains opening up. The farmers however expected this season to be good and did their routine pre-monsoon activities, but nature had different concept at hand. Another news was that Government has sanction funds for raising the height of few bridges and building some new ones so that even in case of heavy floods no village should remain without land contact. However nature has its own rules and will always rule.
The rest of story in pictures . . .