Pune: Punit Balan Group announces Rs 3-crore funds to financially strengthen Ganesh mandal workers; Young Entrepreneur Punit Balan’s decision
Pune: Ganesh mandals’ pillar of strength Young Entrepreneur Punit Balan has decided to financially strengthen mandal workers. Funds will be provided for them through Punit Balan Group (PBG) to set up enterprises, for which Rs 3 crore has been made available. This was revealed by PBG President Punit Balan.
A felicitation was organised on the occasion of Shrimant Bhausaheb Rangari Ganpati Mandal Trust Celebration Chief and Trustee Punit Balan’s birthday by Ganesh mandal workers and Dhol-Tasha troupe members.
Balan performed ‘Aarti’ of Shri Siddhivinayak Ganpati at Sarasbaug. Later, Akhil Mandai Mandal President Annasaheb Thorat and Nimbalkar Talim Mandal’s Senior Worker Suresh Pawar felicitated Punit Balan by presenting a citation.
Replying to his felicitation Punit Balan said, “Society’s view is prejudiced towards Ganesh mandal workers. Common people think that mandal workers are vagabonds. But many of them work for their respective mandals for over a month voluntarily by setting aside their other responsibilities such as job, business, etc.
“Mandal workers are the backbone of Ganesh mandals. They must survive. They should be respected. Therefore, PBG decided to help them establish their enterprise by raising Rs 3 crore. Annually, 100-300 workers will get help. Funds will be increased with every passing year.”
Mandal workers welcomed the decision with a big applause. Ravindra Malwadkar, Parag Thakur, Uday Jagtap, Suryakant Pathak and Dheeraj Ghate spoke. Shri Devdeveshwar Sarasbaug Sanstha Trustee Ramesh Bhagwat, Prasad Kulkarni, Vikas Pawar, Hemant Rasne, Datta Sagare, Anil Sakpal, Sanjeev Jawale, Shirish Mohite, Suresh Jain, Piyush Shah and Ashutosh Deshpande and workers from a majority of Ganesh mandals and Jai Ganesh Vyaspeeth and members of Dhol-Tasha troupes were present.
Anand Sagare read out the citation. Nitin Pandit conducted the programme while Shrikant Shete proposed a vote of thanks.
