Dark evenings no more for tribals of this hamlet …..Milind Ballal I TNN
Thane: The tribals of the remote Manmohadi hamlet of Jawhar taluka, Thane district, will no longer spend their evenings in the dark. On Sunday, their homes became illuminated by solar power.
Nestled in the mountains and surrounded by dense forest, Manmohadi is roughly 120 km away from Mumbai. Despite this proximity to the countrys commercial capital, the villageone of a cluster of hamletshas been without electricity all these years.
When we first visited the village two years ago, we encountered the most difficult terrain, which was perhaps why these tribal localities have remained beyond the reach of public utilities, like electricity, said Naresh Mulay, president of the Rotary Club of Thane (north), which undertook the project that has given the adivasis a reason to rejoice.
The club approached the Rotary Club of Nepean (south) in Canada for assistance to fund the Rs 6.79 lakh project. Sachin Kulkarni, who headed the project, said, All the club members were deeply involved and with the help of Pragati Pratishthan, a local NGO working for tribal welfare. We built a rapport with the villagers. They were aware of a similar project we executed two years ago in a neighbouring village. The Rotary Club in Canada helped with $12,800. The remaining amount was raised by our club.
About 192 houses will be lit up with solar power. Each house will have three LED cluster lamps and a solar panel installed on their mud-thatched houses, said Rotarian Raju Godbole.
We have told the villagers that they need to keep aside Rs 25which they earlier used to spend on kerosene to dispel darknessfor maintenance of the solar system, said Santosh Bhide, another Rotarian.
Aside from their Canadian counterpart, the Rotarians also acknowledged the help of Datta Saigakar, who runs an NGO and had organised a fund-raiser. The club is planning more such projects in the tribal taluka, where electricity is unlikely to reach for the next two decades.
The club has also built small dams on rivers to conserve water. The three dams constructed by our club have enabled tribals to grow vegetables and generate an income of around Rs 100 every day. We also laid a pipeline so womenfolk need not trek for miles to fetch water, said Purushottam Agwan, a Rotarian.
LIGHTING UP LIVES: Solar power has lit up about 192 houses in Thanes Manmohadi taluka