Pawar, and Baramati town: parallel fortunes
For at least two decades now, the Pawar family has dominated the life of Baramati, a small town barely 100 km south-east of Pune. Over this time, an area which was scarred by a terrible famine more than a century ago has been progressively integrated with the prosperous sugar belt of southern Maharashtra, with the growth of cooperative sugar factories, several small-scale industries and extensive vineyards.
Baramati's significance on the political and economic map of the state has increased in direct relation to the fortunes of its most famous son, Sharad Govindrao Pawar, 51. And now, as the former state chief minister, present defence minister, and potential prime minister, contemplates his return to the Lok Sabha with a massive mandate from his home constituency, the once-barren region has reached yet another turning point in its history.
Today, Baramati, thanks to Pawar's clout with business tycoons,promises to grow into a major industrial centre to rival the heavily developed Pimpri-Chinchwad belt in neighbouring Pune. The ambitious plans envelop not just Pawar's home taluka, but all the other five in the constituency. Five major and two smaller industrial estates of the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) are rapidly talcing shape, even as the Centre has cleared the setting up of two new sugar cooperative factories, and a major lift irrigation scheme is planned to provide water to the region's remaining dry villages.
