Bhakti Chalak/Pune

'Jamiat Ulma-e-Hind' and 'Khidmat-e-Khalq' have rushed to the help of the flood victims in Dharashiv district. While many villages in Paranda taluka of Marathwada have suffered heavy damage to houses and land, this act of humanity by the Muslims of Satara restored people’s faith in humanity.

The massive floods in the Sina and Khairi rivers had wreaked havoc in the Paranda taluka. The torrential rain washed away houses and submerged the standing crops. Though people had shifted to the makeshift camps, they had no resources left to resume normal life once they returned to their houses.

These two Muslim organisations launched the initiative of providing food grains and essential items to the flood victims in Satara took the initiative to help them.

Hafiz Waseem Yusuf Sheikh, president of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind in Satara, said, "Our job is to support and help the hungry and homeless in distress. Show mercy to the people on earth, and God in heaven will show mercy to you. Our religion teaches that the one who eats his fill and his neighbour goes to bed hungry is not one of us."

Maulana Nadeem Siddiqui, Maharashtra State President of 'Jamiyat Ulama-e-Hind', said the initiative 'Ek Haat Manusakicha' (One hand of a Man) was taken up.

This initiative was started under the guidance of Maulana Riyaz, Sadiq Sheikh, Haji Mohsin and Mubin Mahadwale. Under this initiative, Satarkar directly reached Paranda taluka to relieve the pain of the flood victims.

Under this initiative, the workers initially helped as many as 450 families by providing them with ready-made food items like laddus, shev, and farsan. They also gave them sugar, tea leaves and cash totalling around one and a half lakh rupees.

In all, they provided 60 ration kits, 1000 kg of rice, clothes for men, women and children, school supplies, medicine kits and other household items.

These two organisations also adopted some neglected villages. After that, they provided aid to the villages of Chinchpur Budruk, Shelgaon and Mungshi by giving around 200 locals ration kits and clothes.

 The flood victims of Awati in Solapur district also received aid. Till date, this aid has reached a total of 1000 families from Satara district.

The task of selecting the most needy family was entrusted to 'Jamiyat' Paranda President Murtuza Pathan, journalists Noorjahan Sheikh, Irfan Sheikh, and Sameer Pathan. They, in turn, worked with the local administration in identifying the worst-hit families.

In Chinchpur, ration kits were delivered to the needy with the help of local activists like Shivaji Shinde, Rizwan Sheikh, Janakiram Gaikwad, Javed Sheikh and Subhash Sutar. Families whose entire belongings had been washed away by the flood had shifted to camps. The Muslim volunteers visited and offered them a set of utensils, clothes and supplies for children to resume their school.

Many activists, including former corporator of Paranda Irfan Sheikh, Haji Sameer Pathan, Sadiq Sheikh from Satara, Mufti Ubaidullah, Mufti Mohsin-Ali Bagwan, Azhar Maniar, Hafiz Shakir, Mohsin Korbu, Razia Sheikh, Maulana Abdul Aleem, Ismail Pathan, Muzaffar Syed and Yasin Sheikh, participated in this relief work. Also, volunteers from the organisations' Saifullah Group' and 'Muslim Mavla Chhatrapaticha' played a valuable role in this work.

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The villagers expressed their gratitude towards the Muslim organisations of Satara as they felt relieved of tension about how to restart their lives.