Gujarat govt to mark Pandit Deen Dayal’s birth centenary as Garib Kalyan Year

Gandhinagar: The State Cabinet with Chief Minister Vijay Rupani in chair here today decided to observe the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay’s birth centenary year in Gujarat as Garib Kalyan Varsh, and launch a number of campaigns to uplift the poor above the poverty line for their economic development.

Giving details of the programmes, Health Minister Shankabhai Chaudhry and Minister of State for Home Pradeepsinh Jadeja said the Vijay Rupani Government’s initiatives to uphold the four pillars of good governance — transparency, sensitive, decisive and progressive policies – have gone down well with the people.

The Ministers recalled that 1.04-crore poor were disbursed assistance worth Rs.16,391-crore during 1,348 Garib Kalyan Melas held in eight phases when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat. This year, 14.88 lakh poor were extended assistance worth Rs.3,862,crore during 95 Garib Kalyan Melas.

They said the government has taken up several more steps for the last man in the last mile as per Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay’s Antyodyay scheme, such as increasing the widows’ monthly pension to Rs.1,000, carrying the bodies of the very poor dead persons at government expenses for the last rites, medical expenses of Rs.500 per month for sickle cell, anemia and similar diseases.

The Ministers said the year-long programmes are not just to provide economic development but also for their all round development through the government’s mantra for sauna saath, sauna vikas.

Information