Жаянт Патил: Махараштра саяхатшысының өмір жолы мен үлкен жетістіктері

Indian politician

Jayant Rajaram Patil (born 16 February 1962) is an Indian politician from the state of Maharashtra. He has been representing Islampur (Vidhan Sabha constituency) in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly for more than 3 decades. He was the Cabinet Minister of the Water Resources Department in Uddhav Thackeray ministry. Previously he has been the Rural Development Minister (2009 to 2014), the Finance Minister (1999 to 2008) and the Home Minister (2008 to 2009) of Maharashtra.

Jayant Patil is the younger son of former Maharashtra Cabinet Minister and celebrated veteran Congress leader, Rajarambapu Patil. He was named ‘jayant’ meaning victorious, since he was born shortly after his father’s first electoral victory in the 1962 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election. Jayantrao completed his Bachelors in Civil Engineering from the Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute and subsequently left to pursue his master's degree from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, US. Unfortunately, after the sudden death of Rajarambapu Patil in 1984, Jayant Patil had to return from the USA. After working around six years in the overall development of the Sangli area, Patil was given a ticket to contest the State Legislative Assembly elections from Walwa at the age of 28.

Jayant Patil became the youngest finance minister of Maharashtra, presenting his first budget at the age of 39. He went on to present the Maharashtra Budget 10 times consecutively, a record till date, and brought many major changes to the State. He is often credited with reviving the state economy from a low point in 2003 2004. At the time, the State’s financial condition was in a precarious condition due to overspending by the previous Government in ambitious projects like the Mumbai–Pune Expressway, Krishna Valley Irrigation Project, etc. Additionally, the implementation of the 5th Pay Commission had also put a considerable strain on the State’s financial resources. In 2001, Jayant Patil met with a severe accident near Bangalore and had to undergo multiple operations on his fractured legs and was confined to a wheelchair for several months. He presented the finance budget of 2001 while he was still on the wheelchair. In his 10 year stint as the finance Minister from 1999 2008, Patil took firm steps to strengthen the State’s finances like delinking dearness allowance paid to the State Government from the Central Government, appointing a committee of secretaries to probe the issues of excess State Government staff and acting and abolishing many posts in the State Government. He also tried to delay the implementation of the 6th Pay Commission as much as possible. Taking advantage of falling interest rates, Jayant Patil also raised fresh loans to retire high cost debts. All these measures reduced the State Government’s expenditure on items like salary, pension and interest from 75 percent of the total expenditure to around 60 percent. In the aftermath of the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, R. R. Patil resigned as the Home Minister. After NCP accepted the resignation, Patil was sworn in as Home Minister of Maharashtra in the First Ashok Chavan ministry. For the next one year as the Home Minister of Maharashtra, Patil played a highly crucial role in modernizing the Maharashtra Police, in terms of equipment and training. He established the Force 1, which is an elite counter terrorism unit of the Mumbai Police with highly upgraded modern weapons. Formed on the lines of the National Security Guards (NSG), its initial training was with the Israeli Special forces and is mainly responsible to guard the Mumbai Metropolitan Area. During this tenure as Home Minister, Patil also passed proposals to install almost 5000 CCTVs in across Mumbai. In 2009, Jayant Patil was sworn in as the Rural Development Minister in the Second Ashok Chavan ministry and continued with the same in the Prithviraj Chavan ministry. His tenure as the Rural Development Minister till 2014 saw some pioneering works including the implementation of E Panchayats, the improvement of e banking services in rural Maharashtra and development of sustainable eco villages. The Eco Villages Scheme was a grand plan in line to combat climate change and to improve the development and preservation of villages in Maharashtra. The programme involved uplifting the environmental standard of villages and plan their infrastructural development to avoid haphazard constructions. Villages qualified for the scheme received a lump sum fund every year to be used in various development capacities. Jayant Patil toured Maharashtra for the outreach of the scheme and conducted 120 meetings with villagers across Maharashtra. This scheme significantly improved the tax collection from villages across the State and championed the plantation of over 1 crore trees.

Rajarambapu Patil was a noted educationist and philanthropist in his own right and started the Kasegaon Education Society. From as early as 1955, he implemented numerous social development initiatives such as buildings for schools, drinking water wells, homes for poor, banking services, jobs for youth, etc. which had direct benefits for the masses of the area. Following in his father’s footsteps, Jayant Patil’s involvement with socio development works in the Sangli area started before his political career. He is credited for bringing piped drinking and farm water to the Walva Taluka from 15 kilometers away before which the area was limited to traditional means. In 2006, on his birthday, Jayant Poverty Eradication Campaign was started to uplift about 12,000 BPL families from the Walwa region. Till date the campaign has benefited more than 50,000 individuals with a total amount of 48 crores. The organization aides in health services, education, housing, employment, financial assistance, rehabilitation, youth guidance, accessing Government schemes, etc. Like other NCP leaders in Maharashtra, he has various education institutes and cooperative bodies under his patronage, many of which were established by his father. All of these organizations work for the upliftment of the lives of the people around them. Some of them include: 1. Rajarambapu Institute of Technology (RIT); 2. Cooperative Milk Federation popularly known as Krishna Dudh; 3. Sugar Factories; 4. Rajarambapu Textile Park; 5. Rajarambapu Sahakari Bank Limited(Scheduled Bank) 6. Kasegaon Education Society 7. Food Processing Units.

Jayant Patil is married to Shailaja Patil, who is involved with social and relief works in the Sangli region. They have two sons, Prateek Patil and Rajvardhan Patil. He lives in Mumbai and Uran Islampur.