Rally at Ratnagiri by Cdr Pathak

Dear Sir

After a very long and sustained effort by Brig Luktuke, IESM was able to hold a Rally of Veterans at Ratnagiri. Incidentally this is the first ever rally of Veterans to be held in Ratnagiri.

Those who contributed in making the rally a grand success at local level in Ratnagiri were the following Veterans

Subhash N Sawant President Ratnagiri Dist Ex Servicemen Association
Shankar Milke Gen Secretary Ratnagiri Dist Ex Servicemen Association
Mohan Satav Treasurer Ratnagiri Dist Ex Servicemen Association
Praveen Pavaskar
D G Shelar
The IESM Pune team comprising the following left Pune at 0400 on 09 Jan to be present at the Cycle Rally at 0930.
1. Brig Sharad Luktuke
2. Dr Mrs Arundhati Sardesai
3. Cdr R W Pathak
4. Gr Capt S S Phatak
5. Lt Col Vinod Patil
On arrival at Ratnagiri the team was escorted to garland the Statue of Shivaji and then the entire team was taken in an open jeep in a procession with Motor cyclist riding ahead,to garland the Statue of Dr Ambedkar and to lay a wreath at the Shaheed Memorial. The wreath laid by IESM was only the third in the history of that Memorial.

Thereafter the team was taken to the hall where the meeting was scheduled.

At the meeting Brig Luktuke ,Cdr Pathak and Lt Col Patil spoke to the 350 veterans present. With IESM team the reps of the various Taluka level committees of the Ratnagiri District were on the dais.

Towards the end of the meeting Shri Bhasker Sheth Jadhav the District Guardian Minister and Min of state for Ex Servicemen Welfare also joined us on the dais. We had a short exchange of pleasantries with him. He quickly noticed the absence of any officer from the Sainik Welfare Office and instantly on phone pulled up the Director Rajya Sainik Board .This has been extensively reported in the print press.He has requested us to meet him at Mumbai to discuss issues regarding Veterans.

We were able enroll 32 members on the spot and it is promised by the District Association that they would go from Village to village and enroll at least 7000 of the 7500 Veterans in the district.
We have also got invitations to visit Guhagar and Khed and we shall be planning those trips soon.

Mr Mohan Satav who is actually from Baramati has promised to organize a similar rally at Indapur and Baramati and we shall soon work on that trip too.

I am also happy to inform you all that, Gr Capt Phatak during his personal visit to Belgaum is going to attend a Pension Sammelan at Belgaum being organized by Wg Cdr Mani.
To view photos and press cutting of the rally please click on the link below.
http://picasaweb.google.com/warsharavi/RatnagiriPhotos?authkey=Gv1sRgCMXhpI3zxN2jQA#

Besides the local Print media the Rally was also covered by IBN LOKMAT and ZEE Marathi all over Maharashtra

Brgds

R W Pathak
Cdr Ravindra Waman Pathak