Sachin Tendulkar adopts Maharashtra's Donja village, to bat for its development

Osmanabad MaharashtraDonja around 95 kms from here is a typical Indian village old houses no pucca roads overflowing gutters a ramshackle school and primary health care centre water shortages and joblessness among the peopleHowever suddenly the village has shot into national limelight after cricket icon and Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament MP Sachin Tendulkar zeroed in on it for development under Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana SAGYTendulkars team of advisors along with government officials had made a study visit to the old village around 35 kms from Mumbai and prepared a detailed report before he selected itSachin TendulkarLaunched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 11 2014 on the birth anniversary of the late Jaiprakash Narayan the SAGY scheme envisages each MP selecting one village from their constituency to be developed as a model villageIn April 2012 Tendulkar 43 became the first active sportsman and cricketer to be nominated to the Rajya Sabha by former President Pratibha Patil and will enjoy the term till 2018Locals are optimistic that with Tendulkars intervention things might change for the better in this dusty dirty and since past five years droughtafflicted villageDonja is an example of a good local village economy but without any development infrastructure or amenities for the approximately 4500 strong population said Sanjay Miskin who hails from the vicinityUntil barely five years ago the village on the banks of Sina River in Marathwada and the backwaters of the Koregaon project was a green oasisHowever due to the droughtlike situation compounded by scanty rainfall the village suffered and many people left for urban centres like Pune Aurangabad Mumbai to earn a living Miskin a senior journalist with Sakal a Marathi newspaper told IANSConsequently only a few farmers peasants and many daily wage earners were left behind in the village to eke out an existence on the sprawling farms growing sugarcane jowar pulses and a handful of farmers even growing grapesHowever Miskin feels the village spread across nearly 2900 hectares offers tremendous scope for Tendulkar to develop it as an ideal and model village that others nearby can emulateDonja village is served daily by two services of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation MSRTC and functions as the transportation minihub for the neighbouring small villages or hamlets of Deulgaon Katewari Gosaviwadi Aleshwar Bangalwadi Parewadi Ingoda Anala Kandari Karla and MugaonPrivate bus services which bypass Donja and its surroundings can be availed only from Paranda the subdistrict headquarters around 30 kms awayAs the transportation minihub it also becomes the weekly village market where farmers from surrounding areas troop in with produce though a formal market is nonexistentLocals like Miskin say there is scope to construct roads a drainage system set up a proper market for the economic development of the village and its vicinity repairing the sole old school building and primary health care centre installing a solar electric network to ensure uninterrupted power supply and other ecofriendly projectsUnder SAGY the focus will be on the socialcultural development of the selected villages and motivating and mobilizing the local community on various developmental aspects