Runadhar Trust’s new approach to helping ryots’ kin

Nagpur: To provide stability to family members, especially children, of farmers who have committed suicide, nine prominent persons from the city have come together and established — Runadhar Charitable Society. They plan to establish a hostel and provide skill development training to kin of deceased farmers and monetary assistance every month. 

The nine persons include chairman of Vishvaraj Infrastructure Limited Arun Lakhani, who is president of the trust, corporator Sandip Joshi and Dr Pramod Giri, both vice-presidents, secretary Parag Saraf, joint-secretary Vrushali Deshpande, treasurer Dr Manoj Singarkhiya, and Dayal Mulchandani, Deepa Kale and Prashant Dani as members.

The society and its activities differ from that been done or planned by other social organizations. The team of nine persons established the trust two years ago. They appointed two students who had completed Master in Social Work and conducted a survey to find out what exactly is the main requirement for family members, especially children, of farmers who committed suicide.

Joshi told TOI the initiatives will begin from Nagpur and Wardha district and later across remaining areas of Vidarbha. "Our team's survey over two years included visits to houses of 350 families of deceased farmers in the two districts. One time or regular monetary assistance was not found to be a permanent solution. We realized the need to encourage and train the kin of deceased farmers to get employment or establish businesses. Therefore, we plan to establish a hostel in which skill development training will be given to only kin of deceased farmers along with accommodation in the city. Hostel project will be completed in current year itself. More activities will be planned 

in later stages," he said.

Joshi added that the project will begin with financial assistance to 100 families of deceased farmers. "We have identified 100 families from 14 tehsils in Wardha district and four tehsils in Nagpur district. We received response from 100 persons wishing to adopt a family each. We will deposit cheque of Rs4,000 per month in the account of all 100 families for one year. Then the initiative will be stopped, as we feel continuous financial assistance is not a solution. This is planned as we have to begin with some concrete step," he said.

The society has organized a programme to begin monetary assistance to 100 families on January 26. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat will inaugurate the project and distribute cheques to the identified families.

The plan to begin from Wardha and Nagpur districts also differentiates the society's initiative from others. Most social organizations have started their initiatives in Yavatmal district despite the fact that farmers suicides are also witnessed in other districts of the region.

 This New is Originally Posted on The Time of India

Arun Lakhani Confident Of Uplifting Badminton Standard In Maharashtra

NAGPUR: Arun Lakhani, the newly elected president of Maharashtra Badminton Association (MBA) is confident in bringing up positive changes in badminton sport for the Maharashtra state.

The city businessman said it is an honour to lead the MBA and will strive hard to take the game to another level during his three-year tenure.

“The MBA has managed to spread the game to all corners of the state. Around 24 districts are active, which is a very positive sign for badminton. Still, we lack in providing facilities to the talented players. We don’t have enough infrastructure to accommodate more players. My focus will be on to develop the facilities and infrastructure,” said Lakhani while addressing meet-the-press programme, organized by the Sports Journalists’ Association of Nagpur, here on Monday.

He was referring to the fact that, several players of Maharashtra train outside the state because lack of top class academy in the region.

“Although we are churning out quality players on regular basis, we failed to keep them in state. They move out to Hyderabad, Bangalore and other places as they have world-class academies. If we can provide them same facility here, there is no reason they migrate to other cities. We will make all-out efforts to start our own academy,” said Lakhani.

This New is Originally Posted on Badminton in India

Arun Lakhani optimistic about raising badminton standard in Maharashtra

The newly-elected president of Maharashtra Badminton Association (MBA) Arun Lakhani is determined to bring many positive changes for the betterment of badminton in the state.

After being elected as the MBA president in Mumbai last week, Lakhani is slowly and steadily understanding the set-up to chalk out his plans for the future. The city businessman said it is an honour to lead the MBA and will strive hard to take the game to another level during his three-year tenure.

"The MBA has managed to spread the game to all corners of the state. Around 24 districts are active, which is a very positive sign for badminton. Still, we lack in providing facilities to the talented players. We don't have enough infrastructure to accommodate more players. My focus will be on to develop the facilities and infrastructure," said Lakhani while addressing meet-the-press programme, organized by the Sports Journalists' Association of Nagpur, here on Monday. 

He was referring to the fact that, several players of Maharashtra train outside the state because lack of top class academy in the region.

"Although we are churning out quality players on regular basis, we failed to keep them in state. They move out to Hyderabad, Bangalore and other places as they have world-class academies. If we can provide them same facility here, there is no reason they migrate to other cities. We will make all-out efforts to start our own academy," said Lakhani.

The previous president Pradeep Gandhe tried hard to acquire land from government but to no avail. Lakhani said he will continue those efforts by using his good offices with the Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is also from Nagpur.

"We will again approach CM to get a substantial area for our dream project. We can build an academy on the lines of Pullela Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad, which is a very successful model. We will also try to upgrade the existing indoor halls. We will speak with the government authorities to use the 'dead' sports complexes. MBA would like to operate and maintain the various divisional sports structures," said Lakhani, whose younger son Sarang has been training at Gopichand Academy since 2010.

He said the MBA would soon come with ten-point agenda for raising the standard of the game in the state. He said he is going to talk with the different district association officials to know their problems.

"In the next three years, we would ideally like to change the scenario completely. We would like to be bridge between players, parents and coaches. We want to be self-sufficient. We have already started the talks with them. We want game should spread in big way beyond the limited cities of Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur. Badminton can become the second best sport after cricket," said Lakhani.

He said he will try his best so that Nagpur can host a national-level badminton tournament next season at the Mankapur-based Divisional Sports Complex.

This New is Originally Posted on TIME OF INDIA.