Indian Tribal News Service
Gandhinagar
With Assembly polls slated in Gujarat in December this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday unveiled developmental projects worth Rs 22,000 crore in tribal-dominated Dahod district.
Addressing a 2 lakh capacity crowd at the Adijati Maha Sammelan, Modi said, “Now Dahod will become a big centre for Make in India.”
Modi went nostalgic as he recalled his days when he used to visit the tribal region.
“During my earlier days, I used to visit Dahod and Panchmahal region regularly by bus or scooter and often stayed at servants’ quarters of RSW. I had seen this railway property losing its sheen. Once I dreamt of making this place vibrant. After becoming Prime Minister, I could work to make it an economically happening place again. Now, Dahod will become a big centre for Make in India,” the Prime Minister said.
With the establishment of a Rs 20,000 crore manufacturing project of High Horse Power (9000 HP) Electric Locomotives in tribal dominated Dahod, thousands of employment opportunities will be created for tribal youth in coming years, Modi said after laying the foundation stone of Western Railway’s project.
In fact, the existing Rolling Stock Workshop (RSW) spread across 68 acres of land will be upgraded to make it capable of manufacturing electric locomotives. The RSW was established during the British era in the year 1931.
He said that not only Dahod, but tribals across Panchmahal region would get huge business opportunities apart from employment to more than 10,000 people.
Modi also inaugurated a scheme related to drinking water as well as projects related to Dahod city which is one of the six cities of Gujarat selected under central government’s Smart City initiatives. In the process of development, we need to ensure that women shouldn’t remain behind and hence the ‘double engine government’ – Gujarat government and Government of India is committed to make tap water available at every tribal house right from Ambaji region to Umbargaon.
He sought to strike a chord with the members of the tribal community by committing them to provide pukka houses, good roads, 24×7 electricity, cooking gas and tap water. He also promised to provide optical fibre in the state’s 400-km long tribal belt to give tribal youth seamless connectivity.
He said the BJP-ruled Gujarat government has developed medical & nursing, engineering and diploma colleges in the entire tribal belt of Gujarat. Due to a dedicated scheme initiated by the state government, a plethora of tribal students are currently studying in leading foreign institutions, he claimed.
Modi trained his guns on the Congress also by saying that for 70 years freedom fighters belonging to tribal communities across the country were ignored.
“Birsa Munda’s freedom struggle was never acknowledged by earlier governments. Even tribals from Dahod fought with valour against the British. A massacre like Jallianwala Bagh was done by British soldiers in the tribal belt of Gujarat, but the incident was never recorded in history,” Modi said.
The Prime Minister insisted that the people should construct at least 75 big lakes before 15th August, 2023 in every tribal dominated district of Gujarat to make the entire belt green and prosperous to mark India’s 75th year of Independence celebrations. Modi also asked them to adopt natural farming for sustainable living.
Gujarat’s tribal belt, locally known as “Purvpatti” (Eastern Belt), is spread across three regions of the State right from Ambaji in the North to Godhra in Central Gujarat to Umbergaon in the South. South Gujarat comprises four important parliamentary constituencies — Dahod, Chhota Udepur, Bardoli and Valsad. Three of these, barring Chhota Udepur, were with the Congress before 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Tribals constitute 15 percent of the State’s population.
Apart from these four seats, tribal voters constitute a sizable proportion in as many as five other Lok Sabha constituencies, Sabarkantha, Banaskantha, Panchmahals, Bharuch and Navsari. Even before 2014, these Lok Sabha seats were already with the BJP.
