Our Club is a 45 year Old Club situated at Sangli within RID 3170’s Maharashtra part. You may be aware that our District is a unique District comprising of 3 states, Maharashtra, Karnataka & Goa. Hence all members of Rotary District 3170 enjoy different cultures of all 3 States and are also aware about its uniqueness.

At present our Club is having about 91 members of various vocations, which mainly includes of Doctors, Chartered Accountants, Civil Engineers, Architects, Structural Designers/Engineers, Insurance development Officers, Advocates, Manufacturers, businessmen etc. Our Club was chartered during year 1978-79 under the able Leadership of our Charter President Late Rtn. Adv. Nagesh Patil. Till today we had a legacy of 42 Past Presidents and presently 12 past presidents are members of our Club. We are having two Past Presidents (one from Rotary Club of Nippani & other from Rotary Club of Sangli Central) as our members. We are also proud to have 1 Charter members in our Club till today. Our Club is doing various projects for helping Society at large. Before going to the Club activities at a glance, I would like to introduce to you our city SANGLI. Sangli is mainly a famous Turmeric Capital, Grape Wine City, Sugar Belt in India SANGLI city is located in Western India on the banks of river Krishna. The region around the city is green thanks to the fertile soil of the Krishna Valley.

SANGLI was a princely state before merger into the Indian Union in 1948. This state was ruled by the princely family of Patwardhans. The old fort Ganesh Durg, adjacent buildings, the grand temple of Lord Ganesha and the Museum are all gifts of the royal family of Patwardhans to this city. Chintamanraje Patwardhan of the same family was a ruler of vision. He promoted this city as a major business center in India. Thus SANGLI grew as a major center of trade in groundnuts and turmeric. The grapes from SANGLI find a very high demand all over the world. The name SANGLI means the city of Six Lanes. This city of six lanes is now one of the biggest and the most important cities in the state of Maharashtra in Western India. The city also has a rich cultural heritage. This city is the origin of Marathi Drama. SANGLI is also known as Natyapandhari, The Birth Place of Marathi Drama. The famous Hindi singer in India Lata Mangeshkar & Asha Bhosale belonged to Sangli. Late Vasantdada Patil, who became Chief Minister of Maharashtra for 4 times, brought Sugar industry to SANGLI. The sugar factory founded by him in the city is the largest sugar factory in Asia. Now SANGLI is the capital of Turmeric trade in India and has a large commodities market in the region. Miraj a twin city of Sangli is a major railway junction and a major Healthcare centre with reputed hospitals like Cancer Hospital, Wanless Hospital, Mental Hospital, etc. Musical instruments manufactured here are exported all over the world. A Number of Industrial areas have come up in and around the city. Sangli-Miraj MIDC industrial area is the most developed and planned industrial area in the region. Many other industrial areas have come up around the city. There is a very good opportunity for corporates to set up industries here. During these years our Club has served for the Community and has done various projects. I would like to give some glimpses of these work/projects as under; Our Club started its functioning in year 1978 and various small activities for the benefit of society were started by the charter president and Charter Secretary Rtn. Vijay Bhide. In year 1979-80 under vocation service our Club had organized Seminar on Management Techniqueat Walchand College of Engineering, Sangli. Also a grand Seminar on Industrial Safety & Fire Fighting Training was arranged with help of Bombay Fire brigade School & Shri. Ovalekar, industrial safety expert. During the Presidential tenure of P.P. Rtn. Vinayak Nargunde (1981-82) trust of “Rotary Sangli Mid-Town” was formed. During Year 1982-83 i.e just within a span of 5 years of formation the P.P Rtn. Bhalchandra Thanedar attended R.I Convention held at Texas, USA and exchanged our Club flag. This was a proud occasion for our Club. During this year only under Community service our Club donated Cement tanks to “Backward Class farmers” at village Kharshing. Our Club also hosted District training Seminar of Presidents and Secretaries of RID 317 on 6/3/1982 and 250 delegates had attended said Seminar. The work of Club was appreciated by PDG Rtn. Bhau Naik. Our Club always stayed ahead for extending humanitarian aid to the community whenever required. During start of year 1983-84 of P.P. Late Rtn. Bapurao Kulkarni as the coastal area of Ratnagiri and Sindhudurga had torrential and heavy rainfall resulting into heavy floods collapsing houses and destroying rice fields as appeal was made for help to all people by Government for humanitarian aid to disaster affected people our Club took initiative and collected Rs.20,000/- cash from public of Sangli and clothing, food grains etc. and the same was distributed in the flood affected area. This work of our Club in association with R.C. Chiplun was appreciated by the Community at large and the image of Rotary was highlighted in society. In 1984-85 Rtn. Dr. Shekhar Desai was Secretary of our Club and during his year also various programs were arranged and the year was ended by collecting a fund raising of Rs.5001/- as donation to Mid-Town trust. In 1985-86 our Charter member Rtn. Surendra Anna Kante was President of our Club and as the said year was a “National Unity Year’ in his year 11 bicycles were donated to 11 students from Nagaland and they were called for meeting for cultural exchanges. In this year only Rtn. Kante started celebrating Gandhi Jayanti and a Youth gathering was organized which was attended by about 1200 to 1300 school students. During year 1989-90 under the leadership of P.P than Rtn. P.Y.Madwanna and in this year fund raising program was arranged with lecture onsubject “Yaksha Gan” by Dr. Shivram Karanth, the Sahitya Academy Award winner and this program fetched donations of Rs.25,000/- to our Trust. During year 1992-93 the editor of ‘Dainik Samana’, Shivsena Supremo Shri. Balasaheb Thakare visited our Club for delivering his lecture on “Journalism and its code of Conduct”. This year only the P.P. Rtn. Anil Adake had organized our Clubs RYLA at Haripur and 80 students had attended 10 days RYLA. In year 2001-02 our Club excelled in various different activities by its members under the leadership of P.P. Rtn. Shankarrao Tayshetti and Secretary Rtn. Y.V.Kulkarni. A Revenue District Intercity meet on Vocational Service was organized by our Club. A NGO Conference was organized by our Club and this was turned out as a mega event. A Mega Event biggest ever in the history of RID 3170- SNOW TREK 2002 was organized by our Club under leadership of dashing Rtn. Sandip Soley in which about 209 Rotarians and their families from the District participated and they traveled to KULU-Manali, Bais Kund. During this year only our Club organized a Jungle RYLAat Castle Rock, Goafor a period of 1 week and about 80 students participated in this event. In year 2002-03 under the leadership of P.P Rtn. Dr. Shirish Kale and Secretary Rtn. Sandip Soley our club had organized a function felicitating the families of the Soldierswho fought for the country and sacrificed their life for the motherland India. The mothers and widows of the veer Soldiers were honored with recognition of “Veer Mata” & “Veer Patni”.This function was organized in association with Ex-Military Officers Association and for this many Soldiers, defense Officers and families of the Martyrs and public at large was present. This very recognition given by Rotary passed a positive message about Rotary and its work in society. Club started giving recognition to the mothers who by facing all odds and difficulties have survived her family and has strived hard for educating her children’s in adverse conditions and making them capable for leading a better and respectful life. The said mothers are selected from society by our club by circulating news inviting application from the public and after careful scrutiny of the same applying 4 way test of Rotary each year 5 to 6 mothers are selected and they are honored with recognition as “Adarsh Mata”.This very function is carried out due to active support and sponsorship of trophy’s, certificates etc. by family of our Late Rotary member Vasudeo Biyani. His son is now member of our club and we are carrying forward said activity in his association. This very function involves a public at large and thereby the image of Rotary is glorified. The work of Rotary is known by people at large. These very awards are started since year qbout 1990-91. Club has organized “Trade Fair”this is an even wherein all members of club of various vocations are involved and this very event gives vide publicity amongst the public at large and it is event for Rotarians to have interaction with public directly and highlighting the work of Rotary. Besides these ongoing projects we have done certain Community Projects such as 15 Toilet blocks donationto Budhgaon Grampanchayatduring year 1994-95 under the leadership of our than P.P Ex-Rtn. Ravindra Pai. 10 Toilet blocks donation at Malu Girls High School, Sangli in year 2007-08. Donations of Computers to school, Sangli Shikshan Sanstha all these projects were carried out under Matching Grants. This legacy of our Past President of our Club continued their work further since year 2003-04 under leadership of Rtn. Ashok Mahajan, Rtn. Y.V.Kulkarni, Rtn. Shivkumar Jumrani, Rtn. Sandip soley, Rtn. Laxman Gulavani and by Rtn. Sandip Mutalik. During year 2009-10 was the revival year of our Club as our Club had passed through a critical phase of certain setbacks from year 2008-09. In this year through Leadership of Rtn. Laxman the Club had done marathon activities in all four avenues of services. This year under community services Sewing Machines were donated to needy woman’s. During year 2010-11 our Club hosted District event on RCC Leadership Forum meet and this even received a huge response and registration. Our Club also hosted a GSE Team from USA RID—under GSE Team Leader Vitthal Bhakta.5