Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday appealed to the corporates to extend their hand in helping the progress of the state by making it drought-free. This help would be under the banner of Jalyukta Shivar Abhiyan (JSA) project, which is the flagship project of the CM.
In this regard, the corporate honchos, through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), have accepted the CM’s appeal and promised to help the State Government and support it wholeheartedly. On Friday itself, around 400 drought-hit villages were adopted by the Corporates. Interestingly, Temple trusts like Siddhivinayak and Shirdi, assured to donate a crore of rupees to all the 34 districts of the state, which collectively amounts to Rs 74 crore.
During a conclave organized by the Delivering Change Foundation (DCF) and the State Government in Sahyadri Guest House, several corporates including Jitendra Kalra (Reliance Foundation), Ravi Puranik (HUL Foundation), Pearl Tiwari (CEO, Ambuja Foundation) and Sumantra Sen (CEP, JSW Foundation) to mention a few, committed of adopting various drought-hit villages and make them drought-free.
Witnessing such help from the Corporates, the CM announced in the conclave that corporates who are helping the Government in this scheme, will be given all the credit for playing an important role in making these villages drought-free. This credit will not be limited to only the corporates who would offer a 100% help, but also to those who would be willing to extend their support for even 20 per cent.
While talking on the scheme, Abhijit Pawar, Chairman and Founder (DCF) said, “In every drought-hit village, a Tanishka member will be made in-charge to look after the work and progress in the village. For this, we will provide all the necessary help in terms of material as well as finance.”
By 2019, the State Government, under the leadership of Devendra Fadnavis, has set a target to make 25,000 villages across Maharashtra as drought-free. Every year the Government aims to make 5,000 villages in the state as drought-free.
In addition to this, the Government plans to link this project simultaneously with various schemes under one umbrella which would result in faster growth and development of the villages.
Considering the project being carried out at such great-magnitude, it will be directly monitored by the CM’s office, putting in place the latest tools and techniques to ensure utmost efficiency and transparency.
While the Government has integrated their finance from multiple sources to make this initiative a success, active participation from key sectors is necessary for completing the project. Considering this, contribution of the corporate sector through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the voluntary participation of manpower as well as professional expertise will be of immense help to complete the project.
Present in the conclave were Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Chairman and Founder (DCF) Abhijit Pawar, MoS (Water Conservation) Vijay Shivtare, Chief Secretary Swadhin Kshatriya, Principal Secretary (Water Conservation) Prabhakar Deshmukh.
To get associated with JSA, get in touch with your collectors or divisional commissioners.
For further enquiries, please get in touch with us at jsa.csr@deliveringchangefoundation.org