Anandiben pitches for adoption of schools

Citing instances of NRIs and leading philanthropic businessmen coming forward to donate for schools, Patel appealed to the gathering to come forward and “lend a helping hand” to the education in underdeveloped areas of the state.

Patel congratulated the Navrachna Society on its jubilee celebrations and utilised the opportunity to pitch for individuals and businesses to adopt schools. “Modiji has insisted that all educational institutions must take students to the North-Eastern states as it will enable exchange of ideas. This is one work I want to give you all,” Patel said

Patel expressed confidence that schools handed over to trusts perform well due to “commitment”. She said, “In the last few days, I have travelled to many interiors and saw all schools there. When I was the state education minister, several schools never had many students. They were handed over to trusts and these schools now have 400-500 students and results of 1 per cent and 2 per cent have turned into almost 100 per cent results. I am happy with how trusts run these schools,” she said.

Speaking of the nine schools in Chhota Udepur, Patel said, “If we cannot take responsibility for these schools, what kind of society are we or government are we? There are many problems that crop up in the society, but if we don’t come together and work to resolve it, it will turn bigger.”

She also reiterated the need to build toilets in “every house in the state” and the state government’s commitment to eradicate malnutrition from the anganwadis and schools. “We are trying to provide saatvik fresh food to all children in government schools and anganwadi children. Even NRIs meeting me bring only fruits and dry fruits that go to anganwadi children who may have never even seen dry fruits, forget eating them,” Patel said.

The celebrations of the golden jubilee of the society also turned into a political platform for the Swacch Bharat Abhiyan — of which Navrachna Chairperson Tejal Amin is the Vadodara brand ambassador — as Anandiben handed over a pledge to seven schools of the city. The income tax department’s official web portal for the Swacch Bharat Abhiyan was also launched at the hands of CM Patel in presence of Cabinet Minister Saurabh Patel, Vadodara MP Ranjan Bhatt, Mayor Bharat Shah, Deputy Mayor Sunita Shukla, BJP MLAs Yogesh Patel, Rajendra Trivedi, Jitendra Sukhadia and Manisha Vakil, Municipal Commissioner Manish Bharadwaj and District Collector Dr Vinod Rao.

Later, Tejal Amin declared that Navrachna had decided to adopt all nine schools of Chhota Udepur.