By our correspondent, Vadodara, 19 April 2013

Rajya Sabha MP and India’s top criminal lawyer Ram Jethmalani was in Vadodara today morning. Jethmalani spoke with media persons briefly and replied media’s questions on Narendra Modi.

Gujarat govt spokesperson minister Nitinbhai Patel today clarified Gujarat govt’s stand on case involving Mayaben Kodnani in reaction to questions asked by media persons during weekly briefing session.

By our correspondent, Ambaji, 15 April 2013

Gujarat Chief Minister Shri Narendra Modi today performed puja at Ambaji mandir in north Gujarat on the occassion of Chaitri Navratri.

Shri Modi observes fast during nine days period of Chaitri Navratri, and avoids to travel outside Gujarat.

Shri Modi has therefore sent junior Home Minister to Chief Ministers conference in New Delhi today.

After performing puja, Shri Modi briefly talked to media about this. Presented above is video of same.

Ahmedabad, 10 April 2013

Here is a video created by Apporva Shah, and picked up from Youtube. The five minute video is about some Gujarati youths living in Melbourne in Australia.

By our correspondent, Kolkata, 9 April 2013

Addressing the industry leaders at a programme in Kolkata today Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi alleged UPA government for its anti-developmental policies and for discriminating against the non-Congress states.

“The Centre doesn’t have right to give discriminatory treatment to elected state governments with different ideologies”, he said criticizing the Centre’s attitude of weakening the country’s federal structure. “Time has come for states to raise voice against this negative mentality of the Congress-led UPA government”, the chief minister said.

The programme was organized jointly by the old MCC Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Indian Chamber of Commerce and Bharat Chamber of Commerce, and saw presence of around 800 industry leaders. The industry captains were impressed by the chief minister’s views on vibrant growth model.

The chief minister said that UPA was not serious about nation’s development. “Rather it keeps doing injustice to the state governments which are committed to development. It is routine for Gujarat to face unjust treatment from the Centre”, he said.

“The Central government not only negates the decisions and legislations of the non-Congress state governments, but also slaps financial burden on the states for implementing the decisions made by it”, said Mr Modi. He said the UPA is also creating difficulties for federal economy of India.

“Because of the anti-farmer policies of government of India the agricultural growth rate does not move beyond 3%, while Gujarat government has continually achieved over 10% of agro growth rate since past ten years”, Mr Modi said.

He said that due to Centre’s topsy-turvy policies for cotton export the cotton producers of Gujarat went into a loss of Rs 5000 crore. “How then can you trust the Centre’s policies”, he said. Gujarat has chalked out a new textile policy for safeguarding the interests of cotton producers, which is based on five ‘F’ (Farm-Fiber-Fabric-Fashion-Foreign), he added.

While UPA has managed to produce 100 MW of solar power by now, Gujarat has set up Asia’s biggest solar park in the country and is singly producing 650 MW of solar power, said the chief minister.

Coal-based power plants having 20,000 MW of power generating capacity are lying nonfunctional in India, even though India has enough of coal. The coal and gas based power plants in Gujarat are running on half of their capacity. UPA’s power policy is forcing India to dark, he said. “An illusion is created that things have gone out of control on this front. But fact is that you need political will to bring about a change, which is absent in the central government on all the fronts”, said Mr Modi.

Criticizing the foreign policy of the Centre the chief minister said that safeguarding of the nation’s interest has to be a prime concern. The foreign policy of UPA government is such that while the heads of our soldiers are cut off the UPA accords hospitality to the culprits, he said.

Today Gujarat’s development agenda is acknowledged in the entire country. With the same government machinery the state has achieved miraculous development during last decade. Along with an excellent industrial growth, the agriculture has also bloomed. The state has given equal weightage to Industries, agriculture and service sectors. The moves like soil health card, micro irrigation and Krishi Mahotsav has achieved eye-catching success, he said.

“The UPA government is on deathbed now. Its indecisiveness has halted the country’s growth. The prime minister still merely talks about lessening price-rise”, said Mr Modi.

West Bengal has legged behind due to misgovernance of 32 years. It took ten years for Gujarat to fill the holes dug by Congress governments of past. Similarly, it will take time for west Bengal to rectify the situation. Recalling that west Bengal contributed greatly in India’s freedom struggle as well in the field of science he appealed the industry leaders to make best use of natural resources and manpower to fulfill their duty towards their State.

The chief minister also had interesting question-answer session with the industry leaders on various aspects of Gujarat’s development and on making India a strong nation.

MCCI president Dipak Jalan and the presidents of both the Chambers welcomed the chief minister and said the nation feels proud for the achievements of Gujarat and under the leadership of chief minister Narendra Modi the Gujarat is showing path to the nation for realizing its potential.

Gandhinagar, 18 March 2013

Recollecting Gujarat’s old connection with Jews, Chief Minister Narendra Modi recalled that erstwhile prince Jamsaheb of Jamnagar had given shelter with dignity to nearly 6,000 women and children belonging to Jew community from Poland, who had fled Siberia during Second World War.

Talking to American Jews Committee (AJC) expert and Director of Asia Pacific Institute Ms Patricia Marcus here, Mr. Modi said the Jews in Gujarat are emotionally attached to the people of Gujarat for long.

While AJC is engaged in ensuring human rights and democratic privileges of Jews residing across the globe, Ms Marcus is associated with American Democratic Party for international affairs.

They discussed a wide range of topics related to Israel’s cooperation and relation with India and particularly Gujarat’s development and its contribution to India and Asia’s growth, changing global economic scenario and energy security, besides Gujarat bridging relations with America. Gujarat has special relation with Israel in water management, agriculture and energy.

Others present on the occasion included AJC active alumni Dr Bharatbhai Barai, Jews Synagogue’s Benjamin and Chief Minister’s Additional Chief Secretary K. Kailashnathan.

Youth workers from tribal Tapi district call in Gujarat Chief Minister

A group of young workers from the remote forested Songadh,Vyara-Nirjhar in predominantly tribal Tapi district called on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi at his State Assembly office here today.

PTC students from Adalaj call on Narendra Modi

A group of PTC students of Manekba Adhyapan Mandir of Adalaj, on an educational tour of Gujarat State Assembly, today called on Chief Minister Narendra Modi here today.

Gandhinagar, 17 March 2013

Gujarat BJP Spokesperson today briefed media persons that the district party chief in Gujarat will be declared by the end of this month. Before that the mandal presidents will be declared. After the declaration of district party chiefs, a new state party chief will be appointed, he added while speaking to media persons on the sidelines of Gujarat BJP’s office bearers meeting in Gandhinagar today.

Gandhinagar, 14 March 2013

A group of 40 students of mass communication and journalism from Pune and Nashik in Maharashtra today visited Gujarat Chief Minister Shri Narendra Modi.

Chief Minister Shri Modi told students that to serve the nation, any field is important. Shri Modi talked about difference between criticism and allegation. Gujarat’s development was part of the discussion between the students and the Chief Minister.

By our correspondent, Ahmedabad, 12 March 2013

“If you ask one remedy of the problem of malnutrition, I would say it is the awareness in parents,” said Ahmedabad’s District Development Officer Banchhanidhi Pani today.

When asked what is responsible for malnutrition – poverty, or lack of awareness, he replied “both, but lack of awareness is still the main reason.”

He said there are instances where children are found malnourished even in higher income groups, and that shows lack of awareness in general.

Pani was meeting media persons today in Ahmedabad to share details of district panchayat’s special initiative ‘Nutrition Mission’ which has recently won national award.

Nutrition Mission project was implemented in rural Ahmedabad district during September 2011 to July 2012, on a scale so big that it covered 1,44,772 children of 0-6 age group.

“The objective was to identify malnourished children(0-6 years), to improve their nutritional status, to identify and treat their medical ailments, to provide health education and counsel the parents regarding importance of nutrition, and to increase the awareness in general population towards nutrition,” Pani said.

Government machinery and funding was just not enough to do the mammoth task of checking around 1.5 lakh children, and identifying those among them who need improvement. Therefore the District Panchayat choose community participation route, and received contribution from private agencies like Tata Nano, Cairn India and Rajalakshmi Logistics Ltd, social service trusts like Ujamba Trust, Uttam Dairy, APMC Dascroi, and even govt employees and leaders of communities.

“It was implemented as a people’s programme,” Pani said.

A special ‘Team Nutrition’ comprising of officers of different departments was formed under the chairmanship of the District Development Officer, District Panchayat, Ahmedabad. The principal implementation was done by Health Branch and ICDS(Integrated Child Development Service) Branch. A workshop was organized in presence of well-known nutrition experts for making out the policy regarding how to carry out the mission. The topic was discussed in detail and the framework was made up. A special module was developed regarding nutrition subject and how to implement the project. A special training (ToT) was organized in which all the Taluka level officers of health and ICDS department were trained about nutrition and nutrition mission by the experts of nutrition field. First officers were trained, the all the female health workers, ASHAs and Anganwadi workers(around 3000) were trained at Block level to sensitize them how to carey out the mission.

After properly trained and sensitized, these workers carried out a special survey covering 1,44,772 children(0-6 years). All those children were weighed with a special customized digital electronic weighing machine, by which stages of malnourishment can be easily identified by field staff and parents of children. It was for the 1st time in Gujarat, that such special customized electronic baby weighing machines were used for weighing the children. Such machines are made available at 310 anganwadi centers throughout the district. Cost of it has been contributed by a private agency.

Out of 1,44,772 children of 0-6 years age group weighed in a special scale, 3,773 were identified as severely malnourished children. 3157 children with medical problems were also identified and treated by medical officers. 377 children were given secondary care by the specialist doctors at special camps.

Out of 1,44,772 surveyed children, 3773 severely malnourished children were provided a ‘special nutritious diet’ as per a special diet plan(feeding high calorie food 5 times a day for continuous 15 days) at Anganwadi centres itself.

The results were encouraging. A number of severely malnourished children came down to half, medium level cases of malnourished children were significantly down from 46,000 earlier to 30,000 at the end of the project according to Pani.

Continuous follow up of these children were also been carried out for 2 months(on 15th, 30th, 45th, and 60th day) by health workers for nutritional requirements as well as health status monitoring.Simultaneously, the parents-guardians of these children were educated and counseled regarding importance of nutrition and nutritious food.

“The third party evaluation of whole project was done by well-known – Indian Institute of Public Health, Gandhinagar,” Pani sid adding that a special website ‘Matra’ (Malnutrition Tracking) is launched for the continuous monitoring of the project.

To make this project and its success replicable, a special documentary film has been prepared which includes the different stages of the Nutrition Mission. The video has been shared on Youtube and it is presented above.

To make the achievements sustainable, the parents of targeted children were convinced that they would now continuously keep watch over the nutritional status of their children to prevent future complications.

We asked Pani the reasons of malnourishment and infant mortality that have been identified during the project period. He replied, “there’s different reason for each type of malnutrition, but general reasons are; lack of awareness about importance of breast feeding, lack of care in the cases of diaria, absence of protection against warms, lesser number of food intakes throughout the day, and the types of food fed to children.”

Pani said that awareness and attention at every level and every layer is important, and Government alone can not fight and win against malnutrition.

Project plan, and results:

File video of Ahmedabad DDO’s announcement on Nutrition Mission (April 2012):

CM congratulates Ahmedabad district panchayat for bagging national award for fight against malnutrition

The Chief Minister Narendra Modi has congratulated the Ahmedabad district panchayat for bagging a national award of QCI-DLSHAH Trurst for achieving excellent results in the battle against malnutrition with people’s participation.

District development officer of Ahmedabad district panchayat Banchhanidhi Pani presented this award before the Chief Minister. The award was given to the Ahmedabad district panchayat on March 08 for achieving excellent results in fighting malnutrition under Gujarat Nutrition Mission.

Ahmedabad district panchayat formed a trained team for implementing the campaign against malnutrition in rural areas. A case study of the achievements of the campaign was also carried out.