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Addressing the press, Justice( Retd) Chandrashekhar Dharmadhikari said the following in connection with the inauguration of the replica of Bapu Kuti on May 01, 2011
Press Note
Yusuf Meherally Centre is celebrating its Golden Jubilee from May 1, 2011. A number of activities have been planned for the occasion. The one that will usher in the Golden Jubilee is the inauguration of a replica of "Bapu Kuti" on that day at Khirat (Tara) Taluka Panvel, District Raigarh.
The purpose of making a replica of Bapu Kuti complex is to spread certain values that were popular during freedom movement and continued to be relevant for creating a better world, to make people aware to respect nature to ward off the dangers of global warming and to demonstrate the steps that citizens can take to mitigate the ill effects. The Centre, as it happens, gets 50,000 visitors annually, largely from Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Panvel and New Panvel.
On the inauguration function of a replica of "Bapu Kuti" on 1st May 2011, Shri Salman Khursheed, Union Minister for Water Resources and Minority Affairs , will be the chief guest, and Dr. Sudarshan Iyengar, Vice Chancellor, Gujarat Vidyapeeth; Dr. Shanti Patel; Gajanan Babar, M.P.; Hussain Dalwai, M.L.C.; Ramsheth Thakur, ex-M.P.; Jayant Patil, MLA; Vivek Patil, MLA; Prashant Thakur, MLA; Dr.Ramdas Bhatkal; Dr. Manimala and S. M. Deshmukh will be the guest of honours.
The function will be held at the Madhu-Pramila Dandavate Sankul, Khairatwadi, Tara, Mumbai-Goa highway, 64 kilometers from Mumbai at 10.30 a.m.
The YMC in its fifty years of existence and 43 years of service to rural areas has led the Centre's managing committee as well as its workers to ask themselves an important question: has the Centre's work helped change man for the better! The answer is not a resounding yes. The Centre runs a hospital with charges that people can afford, in fact for many even a rural man, less than what they can afford, it runs a high school at Tara and no fees are charged and nearby there are two more high schools, and it works among women, youth and Adivasis. It runs gramodyogs, promotes organic farming and does almost everything that needs to be done in a rural area and has brought prosperity to it. And yet a feeling is there that to create a better society something more will have to be done. Constructive work, awareness building, even agitating against injustice, are not enough. Some specifically directed steps towards character building and popularizing human values that are needed in democracy, in an egalitarian democratic society, are necessary and thus emerged the idea of replicating Bapu Kuti and making it a symbol of all that is good, humane for building a largely non-exploitative society. It is a seminal programme that the Golden Jubilee will usher in. The Centre has ten branches and through all of them an effort at changing man will be made.
And Bapu Kuti will also be used to popularize certain essential ideas of the Centre. The Centre stands for mainstreaming of rural development. That's not the mainstream thinking. It wants to make employment generation a people's movement. The model of growth we officially have is delivering growth but not employment and hence the Centre is banking on citizens to ensure generation of employment. It is exhorting people to buy khadi every year, give preference to gramodyog products, use hand made paper for visiting cards and on important occasions, gift Indian handicrafts, go organic and donate for rural development. All these will not only generate employment but mitigate to a certain extent evil effects of global warming. And since hand made paper is basically recycling, it strengthens our tradition of recycling. And it wishes to make common persons agents of change, growth, development. This is a bottom up development and if it can set up a model based on this thinking it can become a trend setter.
The Centre appeals to citizens to participate in and support its activities, visit Bapu Kuti Complex at Tara.
Dated: 26th April 2011
Issued at Mumbai
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