Shankarrao Genuji Kolhe (24 March 1929 – 16 March 2022) was an Indian politician and the

Member of the Legislative Assembly A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. S ...

(MLA) and a minister in

Government of Maharashtra The Government of Maharashtra is the state governing authority for the state of Maharashtra, India. It is a democratically elected government with 288 MLAs elected to the Vidhan Sabha for a five-year term. Maharashtra has a Maharashtra Legisla ...

Early life and education

Kolhe was born Yesgaon village, now in

Kopargaon taluka Kopargaon taluka, is a taluka in Shirdi subdivision of Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra State of India. Area The table below shows area of the taluka by land type. Villages There are around 79 villages in Kopargaon taluka. ''For a list of vi ...

Ahmednagar district Ahmednagar district (Marathi pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, �ɦ(ə)məd̪nəɡəɾ is the largest districts of Maharashtra, district of Maharashtra state in western India. The historical Ahmednagar city is the headquarters of the district. ...

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

. He attended Pune University to earn a

B.Sc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

Agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

. He received a

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...

scholarship to receive additional training in the United States and Europe. In 1953, he travelled to

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

as an agricultural education program trainee.

Career

Political career

Kolhe began his political career as a

sarpanch A sarpanch ( IAST: ''Sarpañch'' Hindi: ''सरपंच'') or Gram Pradhan or Mukhiya is a decision-maker, elected by the village-level constitutional body of local self-government called the Gram Sabha (village government) in India. The Sarp ...

in 1950 and moved up to the state minister post. He was elected as an independent to the

Maharashtra Legislative Assembly The Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha or the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the legislature of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is situated in the Nariman Point area of South Mumbai in the capital Mumbai. Presently, 288 memb ...

in 1972. As a state minister he handled revenue (1991), transport (1992) portfolios. He was a perennial political opponent of the Vikhe-Patil family. In 1970s, he led farmers March to Reserve Bank of India, Mumbai to demand a reduction in interest rates on loan to farmers. He served as the vice-chairman of the Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust, Shirdi from 2004 to 2012. He was on the executive committee of

Rayat Shikshan Sanstha Rayat Shikshan Sanstha is an educational society based in Satara, Maharashtra, India. It operates 34 colleges in Paschim Maharashtra. History In 1882, Jyotirao Phule made a demand for providing free education for all. The social reforms move ...

Cooperative sector work

Kolhe was known for his work in the

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

sector. His work started in 1953 when he formed a

taluka A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administr ...

-level cooperative (''Kopargaon Taluka Vikas Mandal'') in Kopargaon to aid farmers. In 1963, he founded the cooperative sugar factory ''Sahakar Maharshi Shankarrao Kolhe Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana Ltd.'' (previously ''The Sanjivani (Takli) Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana Ltd.'') near Sahajanand Nagar, Shingnapur in

Kopargaon Kopargaon is a town and municipality located in the Ahmednagar district of the Indian state India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, with a total of 36 entities. The states and union territories are f ...

. He also started the National Heavy Engineering Co-operative Ltd. in Pune, Godavari (Khore) Co-operative Milk Society (1976),

Death

Kolhe died in Nashik on 16 March 2022 at the age of 92.

References

External links

Timeline
in

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kolhe, Shankarrao Genuji 1929 births 2022 deaths Indian social workers Indian National Congress politicians from Maharashtra Nationalist Congress Party politicians from Maharashtra People from Ahmednagar district Maharashtra MLAs 1972–1978 Maharashtra MLAs 1978–1980 Maharashtra MLAs 1980–1985 Maharashtra MLAs 1990–1995 Maharashtra MLAs 1995–1999 Maharashtra MLAs 1999–2004