Nashik Diary

It quotes some tribals as saying there is “no church” in Sadadpada village of Peth district and that news reports of it having been set upon by axes and shovels were concocted by an over-animated press.

Now for some hard facts: The church (where the Christian tribals pray) was constructed in Sadadpada in 1987. It was kutcha structure, reconstructed using cement concrete in 1996. It is not your typical Gothic structure, but a shrine, which was attacked and damaged on October 16, 1998. The damaged structure still stands.

Vaidhya’s `observation’ however comes as no surprise — a non-Hindu shrine, for him, is probably as good as no shrine.

Imposing Presence

If the missus is a VIP, can the husband, does the husband, stay quiet and dignified in the background? DrDinesh Bachhav, husband of Nashik Mayor Shobha Bachhav, apparently can’t. Or won’t, much to Madam Mayor’s evident discomfort.

It’s not just to public functions that Dr Bachhav accompanies his wife to — making the organisers scurry around to find him a chair on the dais. He also tags along at official engagements. He’s now taken to attending civic meetings — where no one objects to his presence.

At a press conference recently, he went so far as to speak for the Mayor, who had to turn around and ask him to let her handle the questions herself.

Another case in point is Rajabhau Mogal, husband of BJP MLC Nishigandha Mogal. A permanent fixture at her public engagements, Mogal is said to often throw his weight around at these functions.

Bacchav and Mogal are professionals — the former is a practising doctor and the latter an architect. Both probably thought they needed to expand their horizons a little!

Homeless In Nashik

Vice-chancellor of the newly-created Maharashtra University of HealthSciences Dr Dayanand Dongaonkar shares the fate of the institution he heads: both are without a home.

The university functions from a Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) building, pending the construction of its own campus at Mhasrul. Dongaonkar stays at the government rest house.

Health Minister and pro-chancellor of the university, Dr Daulatrao Aher, tried to help. He requested the NMC to let Dongaonkar have the bungalow meant for Municipal Commissioner Sujata Saunik, who lives in the house allotted to husband and Nashik Collector Manoj Saunik.

However, the civic body’s Standing Committee turned Aher down on the grounds that the bungalow was civic property and that the NMC has already provided a building for the university. Time for Aher to assess his influence in his own constituency. The VC, meanwhile, is still waiting.