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 . . . .