Gandhinagar, 18 September, 2012

At a sarpanch maha-sammelan (mega convention of sarpanchs) held at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar today the Chief Minister Narendra Modi launched Mission Balam Sukham aiming at making the state malnutrition free. As a part of the mission the Chief Minister announced to give a grant of rupees two lakh to all the 18,000 villages of Gujarat. He also announced to give Rs.10,000 to the sarpanch of every village as an annual contingency grant.

The sammelan of sarpanchs of 13,696 village panchayat was organized to mark the golden jubilee of panchayati raj in Gujarat, which was attended by about 14,000 sarpanchs from all over Gujarat.

Coincidently, the present state government in Mr.Modi’s helm completed its 4000 days journey today, which began on October 7, 2001. To mark this moment, the sarpanchs felicitated the Chief Minister for the state government’s achievements and the political stability in the state.

Speaking on the occasion the Chief Minister appealed the sarpanchs to use their leadership qualities for the best development of their villages. “Make sure that every house in your village gets a toilet, no single poor remains without house, and that Gujarat becomes a malnutrition free state”, he said to the sarpanchs.

Regarding the importance of panchayti raj the Chief Minister said that Gujarat implemented the concept of panchayati raj 50 years back with a view to decentralizing of power. “It saw many ups and downs but now the panchayati raj model of Gujarat has got recognition of entire nation”, he said.

The chief minister said that the present government felicitated 89,000 former panchayat representatives of Gujarat to show respect to the vision of panchayati raj. “Most of these representatives were from the other political party which had its command in past”, he said.

At the time when, during a recent incident, many parts of the country were cut from the power supply, Gujarat remained unaffected from the problem, he said. “In Gujarat all the villages get 24 hour power supply through Jyotigram Yojana. The villages are also equipped with the facilities like broadband connectivity and long distance education”, he added.

Chief Minister exhorted the sarpanchs to vow for making sure that every house in their village gets toilet and all the poor beneficiaries get house. “Just in last one month, about six lakh beneficiaries have been handed over housing plots and cheques for the first installment of housing assistance”, he said.

Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj conveyed her well-wishes and said the contribution of sarpanchs holds great importance in the development of the state.

Panchayat Minister Narottam Patel said the present government has spent Rs.34,000 crore in last four years for the all-round development of 18,000 villages of Gujarat. Revenue Minister Anandiben Patel and Education Minister Ramanlal Vora spoke about the state government’s initiatives for the rural development, for providing nutritional food to the anganwadi children and in education sector.

Assembly speaker Ganpat Vasava, Rajya Sabha members Om Mathur, Purshottam Rupala, Smriti Irani, Mansukh Mandaviya, BJP’s national spokesperson Balbir Punj, state cabinet members, BJP leader R.C.Faldu and Chief Secretary A.K.Joti was also present on the occasion.