A young man from Maharashtra’s Chandrapur district set aside lavish ceremonies at his wedding and instead used the funds collected to build a road to help people from his village access their farmland.

Shrikant Ekude of Susa village in Warora tehsil married Anjali on April 28 in a simple affair inspired by the ‘Satyashodhak’ model advocated by social reformer Jyotirao Phule.

A postgraduate in Agriculture, Shrikant said they marked the occasion by planting around 90 saplings instead of accepting traditional gifts from relatives.

Shrikant said that when his wedding plans were being made, he requested that the traditional way of spending money on ceremonies and feasts be avoided.

After convincing his family members and guests, he collected the Rs 50,000, and used it to build a nearly 600-metre road to enable residents of his village to reach their fields without much difficulty.

“The path from our village to the fields would become very bad during the monsoon. It was nearly impossible for people to access their agricultural fields. With the help of locals and the gram panchayat, we built the road,” said Shrikant.

He said people spend money on gifts like appliances, utensils and furniture, but they asked their guests not to get any such things for them.

“We raised funds to get saplings in Susa village, where 36 different types of fruit trees were planted,” said Shrikant.