There is no proper playing ground for the village youth in Keri Panchayat. The village youth club, Dynamic Sports Club Kelawade Keri, Sattari, had submitted a proposal for a playing ground to the Director of Sports and Youth Affairs, 10 years back.
Every year the youth follow up on the proposal but nothing concrete is coming forth from the authorities.
Last year, concerned authorities from the office of Director of Sports and Youth Affairs, had visited the village, seen the place for a ground and had carried out a survey of land, measured the area and done all the formalities. It is learnt that the file is now pending in the Account Department for the past one year.
“In our proposal for the playing ground, we have demanded a multi-purpose ground, best quality of grass, a compound hall and two rooms. If this ground is constructed as per our proposal, then it will be useful for whole Keri panchayat people,” said a village youth.
“We have raised the ground issue in our village gram sabha so many times, but every time the Panchayat elected body is neglecting us and taking our ground issue very lightly. We feel that our Panchayat Talathi, who has not been transferred from our Panchayat for the last 18 years, is creating problems in our ground issue,” says Ramdas Shetkar, a village youth.
Right now, some village youth are playing on an agriculture land in our village. This land is only available during the summer season. For the rest of the year the farmers are growing their agriculture crops. Some of us travel far away to a neighbouring village to play and keep ourselves fit,” says Manoj Gawas, another youth from Keri.
“There are nine wards and almost 1,000 youth in this Keri Panchayat. In our club, we have 50 youth registered with us. Where can we go and play? We can’t go every day to use our neighbour’s village ground,” says Sarvesh Gawas, Vice President, Dynamic Sports Club Keri.
“The proposal, which we have submitted for the ground, is a government land and the only suitable place in our village for a playing ground. But now locals are slowly absorbing that land. If the government continues in delaying our ground proposal, then there will no land left for the ground,” says Sagar Gawas, another village youth.
