PUBLIC LIFE AND VOLUNTARY SOCIAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS

PUBLIC LIFE.

The voluntary social service organizations in an area like a district reflect the nature of public life and the state of social progress. Public life in turn reflects the level of political consciousness, social progress and educational level of the community of people.

Yeotmal has a good tradition of public life ever since the freedom movement. The sacrifice of Shri Palekar for the cause of freedom struggle who ultimately died in jail is of immense value.

In the political field too, Yeotmal has always retained an important position and produced a veteran politician like Shri Vasantrao Naik, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, who has earned an honoured position not only in the State but in the whole country. His worthy contribution towards the enrichment of the public life of Yeotmal is quite well-known.

Newspapers.

Newspapers and journals have found a very congenial home in Yeotmal. The newspapers published from the district have done an excellent work in ventilating the aspirations and grievances of the local people. There are ten journals in the district which purvey district news and national events and educate public opinion. Of these only one i.e., Lokamat is bi-weekly and rest are all weeklies. The Lokamat, the oldest bi-weekly paper published from Yeotmal under the able editorship of Shri Jawaharlal Darda commands a good readership and popularity in the district. The Swadesh, Lokasevak, Gramdoot, Sink Garjana, Hunter, Vishuddha Vritta, Balidan, Yeotmal Times, and Jwala-mukhi are weeklies. Most of these journals are in the Marathi language. Besides these local journals, a number of English and Marathi daily newspapers from Nagpur, Pune and Bombay have found popular patronage in Yeotmal. These include, the Nagpur Times, the Hitawada, the Tarun Bharat, the Maharashtra (all published from Nagpur) and the Times of 'India, the Free Press journal, the Maharashtra Times, Lokasatta and Maratha (all published from Bombay).

Political Representation.

During the last decade a number of parties have emerged on the horizon of the political scene of India as well as of the State. The main parties that are in the field in the State are the Congress, both old and new, the Jansangh, the Swatantra, the Communists (CPI and CPM), the Peasants and Workers Party, the SSP and PSP, the Republican Party of India etc. Among these the Ruling Congress has a majority as it won most of the seats in the elections held in the State in 1967 and 1972.

In the General Election in 1967 the district was represented in the Lok Sabha by only one Congress member. In so far as the State Assembly is concerned the strength of MLAs was seven of which the Ralegaon Legislative Assembly seat is reserved for Scheduled Tribes. The combined Wardha-Yeotmal constituency represented the district in the Legislative Council.

As per the 1971 election to the Lok Sabha a Congress member represents the district in Parliament. In the 1972 Vidhan Sabha elections five Congress members and two Independents were elected from Yeotmal district. The district is represented in the Vidhan Parishad by four Congress members (1973).

The party-wise division of the number of votes is shown in the following table.

TABLE No. 1

THE PARTY-WISE VOTES POLLED IN THE DISTRICT, 1967

The N number of voters and percentage of votes polled is shown in the following table: —

TABLE No. 2

STATISTICS RELATING TO GENERAL ELECTION HELD IN 1967 IN YEOTMAL DISTRICT

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