Maharashtra deputy CM Eknath Shinde encounters bad weather on way to Dare village, takes boat ride home | Kolhapur News

KOLHAPUR: Deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde encountered bad weather and took a boat ride home in Dare village in Satara’s Mahabaleshwar tehsil on Friday afternoon.Shinde was supposed to reach Dare village by 2pm, but he arrived late in Satara from Pune by road. There he was welcomed by Shiv Sena supporters, led by Satara’s guardian minister Shambhuraj Desai.Usually, Shinde arrives in Dare village by helicopter. It takes around two-and-a-half hours from Satara to reach Dare village by road. The roads were properly built after he became chief minister in 2022; before that, it was a rough journey.Dare village is located in ghat areas, for which a heavy to very heavy rainfall alert has been issued from June 13 to June 17.He arrived late at Satara and decided to cut short travel time, arriving at Bamnoli in the backwaters of Koyna dam after a two-hour journey. It was raining very heavily when he reached the backwaters, the main branch of the Koyna river. He stayed inside his car for the rain to stop. The rain stopped briefly, and then he, along with his assistants, hopped onto a motorboat and left.It takes around 7-10 minutes by boat to reach the other side of the river. From there, he walked for 15-20 minutes amid intermittent rain to get into a car waiting to take him to his village. As per the official tour plan, there is no mention of how long he will stay in his village, but it is likely that he may return to Mumbai on Sunday or Monday morning.Tejaswini Patil, the tehsildar of Mahabaleshwar, told TOI, “The deputy CM has reached his home safely. The region is witnessing heavy rain over the last few days.”A local from Bamnoli said that the water in the backwaters is shallow right now, and it takes just a few minutes to cross the river, but the hurdle is to trek up after reaching the other side as the terrain between the tarred road and the backwaters is now muddy. It is not the first time Shinde has taken a boat to reach his village, but whenever he did, there was clear weather, and the water level was high enough to take him to the base of the village, avoiding the need to walk through muddy terrain.State govt to support crash victims’ familiesAt Satara, Shinde spoke to the media briefly. He said that PM Narendra Modi visited the Air India plane crash site. “Some from Maharashtra died in the disaster. We are strongly behind the families of those who died. The govt will help them in whatever way possible,” said Shinde.