Knowing that agriculture was linked to overall development, Joshi began to take active interest in some civil issues. One was the demand for repairing the 64 kilometre road linking both ends of Bhamner Valley; from Vandre to Chakan. There was only one kachcha road built as part of a famine relief scheme but that was way back in 1967 and 1973. It was in awful condition. There were 27 villages in the valley out of which 24 used to get totally cut off during four to six months of monsoon. Vegetables and crops had to be sold locally at a throwaway prices because taking them to the main market was impossible. It was similarly difficult to take a patient to a doctor in Chakan. There used to be at least one incident every monsoon of a woman dying during pregnancy from lack of medical attention. To demand proper road, Joshi planned a Long March which would start from Vandre on 24 January 1980 and would reach Chakan on 26 January, the Republic Day. To prepare for the march, Joshi and his colleagues worked very hard for two months. At every meeting Joshi would appeal to the villagers that barring old and sick persons everyone else should join the march. Villagers liked the idea of a march which was similar to the wari, a religious pilgrimage, they were familiar with. On 24 January about 100 men and women started the march from Vandre. Gradually their number swelled to 2,000 as nearby villagers kept joining them along the route. They spent two nights en route in open spaces by the roadside and local villagers looked after their food and other needs. It was quite a moving sight. Each member was wearing the red badge of SS which each one bought for Rs. 2 and for which a receipt was also promptly issued. Marchers from different villages were moving in their own group carrying a cloth banner on which the name of their village was written. Each group had its art troop carrying traditional instruments like lezim, dholak and zhanja. They were singing religious and patriotic songs along the way. To look after the emergency medical needs of marchers Dr Ratna Patankar and Onions in Chakan : First Spark
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