Mahila Empowerment Party head Nowhera Shaik to sponsor 21 borewells in Solapur

MUMBAI: Politicians sponsoring hoarding and banners to mark their birthdays is passé. But national president of All India Mahila Empowerment Party (AIMEP) and entrepreneur Nowhera Shaik celebrated her birthday on September 21 differently. She announced sponsoring of 21 borewells in Solapur (Maharashtra) as part of celebrations of her birthday (September 21).
"When my party workers in the Maharashtra unit heard that September 21 was my birthday, some of them told me that they wanted to celebrate it with a gift for the people in the parched district of Solapur. They suggested I sponsor 21 borewells. I said ok and arrangements are being made to dig the borewells in the villages of the districts facing acute water scarcity," Shaik told Mirror.
In fact, AIMEP has been quite proactive in providing borewells to several villages in the state. AIMEP’s Mumbai and Maharashtra president Sunita Mohan Tupsondrya said that a couple of months ago three borewells were given to some villages in Satara district.
"Several parts of Maharashtra are reeling under drought and there have been fights over water. At places the shortage of water is so acute that fights break out. We are trying to bring relief to such desperate places as much as we can," said Tupsondrya.
She added that on the birthday of her party president she appealed to her leader who is also an entrepreneur to pay attention to this problem and sponsor 21 borewells in Satara district. "She did not think even twice and immediately said yes to our suggestion. We have given borewells to some villages earlier too. And we will give more,” said Tupsondrya.
Each borewell costs between Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.25 lakh, depending on the depth to which the water is found. The party engages with local NGOs and identifies the villages where the borewells are needed. Once the applications reach the state unit president, they are shortlisted and sent to the national president for approval. Subsequently, the funds are released. And the work of digging borewells starts.
There is no denying that it is mainly women who have to walk some distance to fetch drinking water when the wells dry up in summer. "Since our party is committed to empowering women, we ensure that women should not suffer and try to reach out to as many women as we can with help in different forms. And we have recognised this a huge problem and tried to remove it to the extent we can,” explained Shaik.
Latur, added Tupsondrya, is where All India Mahila Empowerment Party has its first sarpanch. The party posted its first victory in an election earlier this year when a woman candidate Jaishree was elected sarpanch from Latur and the party is celebrating this too.
The party has resolved to fight all the elections, including BMC elections whenever they are held. It had participated in the byelection of Andheri East a couple of months ago even as the BJP-Shiv Sena (Shinde Group) withdrew its candidate from the fray.