Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Wednesday celebrated his 72nd birthday with the tribal people in Udaipur district and inspected the ongoing inflation relief camps at Ghata village in Kotda tehsil and at Jhadol tehsil headquarters.
Mr. Gehlot flew straight to the Mewar region after his three-day visit to Karnataka, where he had joined the Congress’s campaign for the upcoming Assembly election.
Tribal men, women and children carried placards, blew trumpets, played other musical instruments and raised slogans congratulating Mr. Gehlot on his birthday.
An overwhelmed Mr. Gehlot said he had become the Chief Minister thrice with the people’s blessings, and assured that he would spend every moment of his life for their welfare.
“The great sacrifices of the tribals in the Mewar region cannot be forgotten. You have every right to avail of the [government’s] public welfare schemes,” Mr. Gehlot said while explaining the scope of the measures for which the beneficiaries were being registered at the camps.
The senior Congress leader also visited the house of a tribal farmer, Dhara Ram Garasia, and shared meals with the family.
10 welfare schemes
Mr. Gehlot has been visiting remote villages and towns across the State since April 24, when the inflation relief camps were launched at Jaipur district’s Mahapura village panchayat to extend the benefits of 10 welfare schemes to the people.
As the camps are also publicising the Congress government’s achievements ahead of this year’s Assembly poll, Mr. Gehlot pointed out that 1.96 crore guarantee cards for the schemes had been distributed so far.
The Chief Minister announced the upgradation of Devla village as panchayat samiti and Okhra as sub-tehsil apart from the establishment of primary health centres at Jaswantgarh and Bhiwni as well as the creation of a police post at Kheda. He later went to Udaipur city and inspected a camp in Hiran Magri area.
This was Mr. Gehlot’s 15th visit to the Mewar region during the last one year.
Focusing on 17 tribal-dominated constituencies among the 25 Assembly seats in Udaipur division, he had addressed a big meeting of Congress party workers at Gandhi Ground in the city on March 29.
The ruling Congress is especially concerned about the growing popularity of Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) among the tribals after its victory at two seats in the region in the 2018 election.
“Mission Kotda”
The State government’s “Mission Kotda”, operative in the most backward blocks of Udaipur district, has addressed issues such as dropout of students from schools, inadequate number of primary health centres, lack of industries, shortage of Krishi Upaj Mandis, children’s migration for forced labour to Gujarat, malnourishment among adolescent children and lack of services at Anganwadi centres.
Birthday wishes poured in for Mr. Gehlot from a large number of political leaders cutting across party lines.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Assembly Speaker C.P. Joshi, Leader of the Opposition Rajendra Rathore, former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot and several other MPs, MLAs and elected representatives wished the Chief Minister.
Blood donation camps and other activities were also organised by Mr. Gehlot’s supporters at several places.
