SANGLI/PUNE: When nature’s fury struck Sangli and Kolhapur this monsoon, the flooded regions witnessed exceptional humanitarian acts and a large amount of aid coming in.
As the aid comprising food, clothing, bedding, hygiene products made its way to the affected villages, one thing most of the villagers followed was keeping politics away from its distribution.
“We did not want any politics to influence the aid distribution procedure. It is important that every person in the village should receive their fair share of the aid,” said Uttam Sarpanch of Bramhanal, one of the 100 per cent affected villages in Palus taluka of Sangli district.
Bramhanal is one of the worst-affected villages in the district, where a rescue boat capsized, leading to several deaths. The level of disaster in the village gave it a lot of attention, with aid flowing in from all directions.
The responsibility for aid distribution was bestowed upon the Principal of Bramhanal High School, Himmatrao Yamgar.
“All the help that the village received was accepted at the school,” Yamgar Said.
Here, we made coupons in the name of every villager, referring to the ration records and other lists,” Yamgar said.
The Gram Panchayat, being away from the river was saved from the floods, as were the records inside. Located on the confluence of river Krishna and Yerala, Bramhanal faces the threat of flooding almost every year. But not to the extent it saw this time. The Gram Panchayat has thus been strategically located considering the same.
Yamgar added, “A team of 100 of my ex-students worked day and night to accept, sort and distribute the aid that we continued to receive. We have thus distributed all that we received in six rounds. As of now, the seventh round will begin soon.”
He added, “The only goal we had was to work as fast as possible, and take the aid to the last person in the village.”
While the High School took responsibility of aid distribution in Bramhanal, in Bhilawadi (taluka Palus), a village near Sangli city popular for Chitale Dairy, the Chitales took it upon themselves to see the distribution through. “Earlier, when the aid came into the village, we saw that people rushed to the trucks, grabbing everything they could. There was no proper system. So we decided to step in,” said Shashikant Kulkarni of Chitale Dairy.
“The aid began to be received at Chitale Dairy outside the village. Volunteers from the Dairy visited all affected households first, and provided them coupons. The affected families came to the relief centres with coupons, where they were provided with the kits,” Kulkarni said.
Speaking to Sakal Times, Dr Sudarshan Ghirde of Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) said most of the organisations that took aid to the affected villages took charge of the distribution themselves.
“All our aid was collected and segregated in Sangli itself. From there, before taking the aid to the villages, our volunteers visited the villages to make a list of persons who need it the most, and what exactly they need. Accordingly, kits were made and taken to the villages. It has been around two weeks since the water has receded, and the needs of the people have changed now, so we continue to operate in the same manner,” Ghirde said.
