Contributions of Shri. Chandrakant Patil to Disaster Relief

Shri. Chandrakant Patil has been serving as the Cabinet Minister of Maharashtra since July 2016. He is responsible for looking after the Revenue, Rehabilitation and Relief, Agriculture and Horticulture, and Public works sectors. He is among one of the most prominent members of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and the guardian minister of Jalgaon and Kolhapur districts.

Thousands of people are affected by natural disasters in India every year, their consequences being emotionally shattering and catastrophic. 52% of the state is drought-prone and received only 84% rainfall last year. Disaster management is an extremely important aspect for achieving sustainability goals and many people are working in hand with the administration in this sector. Shri. Chandrakant Dada Patil has always tried to come up with attempts to address the full cycle of disaster management through his initiatives. He has had many prominent contributions in this field.

At the launch of the 4th World Congress on Disaster Management held at IIT Mumbai on 29th January 2019, Shri. Chandrakant Patil said that the State’s measures had helped rehabilitate residents of the Malin village in Pune right after a landslide had occurred in 2014. The first meeting of the Steering Committee constituted for the Conference was held at the Mantralaya in Mumbai on 5th September 2018 under his chairmanship in which he stated that the Government of Maharashtra state has done an excellent job with respect to Disaster Management during the last few years. Shri. Patil assured full support to the organization of this conference from the Government of Maharashtra. This conference was basically a medium for the attending experts and delegates of various countries at the global level to exchange the details of disaster management work and come up with collective efforts to help each other with available resources during the time of such crisis. The risk management in disaster, health, education, agriculture and sustainable development in disaster management are a few issues that Shri. Patil pays close heed to. A steering committee headed by him monitored the progress of the various committees handling the 4th World Congress’ organization and progress.

On 10th July 2018, around 62 people and a number of animals had lost their lives due to heavy rainfall in the state of Maharashtra in a mere span of 10 days alone. Shri. Chandrakant Patil brought this issue to light and informed the State Legislative Assembly regarding the same. He said that the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) had predicted very heavy rainfall in Mumbai and its neighbouring areas- Palghar and Thane districts to be precise and that the administration is fully prepared to tackle any such eventuality. The Mantralaya control-room and all the district-level machinery had been monitored actively to monitor the situation of rain and winds. The State Disaster Relief force, the National Disaster Relief Force, army, coast guards and the disaster management machinery of all the civic bodies were made vigilant due to his combined efforts. At the same time, the passengers of Shatabdi express and Vadodara express who were stranded between Virar and Nallasopara due to water logging and 300 people from salt pan areas in Vasai who were stuck in the flooded houses were also rescued by the National Disaster Relief Force on his orders.

On 25th January 2019, in view of severe drought conditions prevailing in several parts of the state of Maharashtra, Shri. Patil announced disbursement of Rs. 2900 crore for relief measures in the affected areas after chairing a meeting at the Mantralaya on drought relief in joint consent with many other ministers present at the meeting. He also directed the district collectors to start one or more fodder camps at Mandal levels with each camp housing around 300–500 animals. He also said that the state government had already sent a proposal to the Centre, demanding Rs. 7900 crores for drought relief measures but considering the gravity and the urgency of the situation, he himself urged the state government to distribute Rs. 2900 crores from its own treasury for relief measures in the affected areas.

Shri. Chandrakant Patil has made many more notable contributions in the field of disaster relief and he constantly works towards the betterment of disaster-prone regions on an individual level too. As a result of his joint efforts with the State Government of Maharashtra, a number of people have been rehabilitated to safer regions and many others have been provided with the help they needed in times of dire need as well.