Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation, Shri Amit Shah addressed the 'Kol Janjati Mahakumbh' organized on the occasion of Shabri Mata Janm Jayanti at Satna, Madhya Pradesh today.

Shri Amit Shah offered prayer at Maa Sharda Shaktipeeth. Many dignitaries including Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shri Shivraj Singh Chauhan were present on the occasion.

In his address, Shri Amit Shah said that the foundation stone of 70 development works worth Rs 507 crore and many other works of Rs 26 crore inaugurated here today, under the leadership of Shri Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Government of Madhya Pradesh has done many works for the welfare of Kol community and tribal brothers and sisters.

The Union Home Minister said that Antyodaya means to pave the way to live with dignity for the poor of the society. He said that after becoming Prime Minister in 2014, Shri Narendra Modi said that his government is the government of Tribals, Dalits, backward and poor people. Fulfilling his each and every promise, Shri Modi has worked to implement poor welfare schemes at the grassroot level. During the previous government, there were no toilets in the houses, Shri Modi built toilets in 10 crore houses, of which the maximum toilets were built in the homes of tribals. Shri Modi gave houses to 3 crore people, provided electricity, gas cylinders, took care of the entire health expenses of up to 5 lakhs and provided both doses of Corona vaccine free of cost. He said that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi also decided to give 5 kg of grain per month to every poor household.

Shri Amit Shah said that Kol community had very significant contribution in freedom movement. The government led by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi is establishing tribal freedom fighters museum across the country at a cost of Rs 200 crore, the bravery of 1831’s Kol rebel is engraved in all the museums. He said that be it the bravery of Gond Maharani Durgavati, sacrifice of  Rani Kamalapati, be it freedom Fighter Shri Buddha Bhagat and Shri Jova Bhagat, all of them have been revered and commemorated by the government of Madhya Pradesh under the leadership of Chief Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chauhan. He said that Shri Shivraj Singh Chauhan has also built the memorial of Shri Raghunath Sah and Shri Shankar Sah at a cost of about Rs 5 crores.

The Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation said that during the previous government, Rs 24,000 crore were given for Tribal community in the budget, which was increased to around Rs. 90,000 crore by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. He said that earlier there were 167 Eklavya Model School for children of tribal community, their number has been increased to 690. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has increased the amount of scholarship from Rs 978 crore to Rs 2,533 crore. He said that all the programmes launched by government of Madhya Pradesh under the leadership of Shri Shivraj Singh Chauhan for poor and tribal welfare were stopped by the previous government, but soon after the formation of Government under the leadership of Shri Shivraj, the Madhya Pradesh government started them again. He said that the double engine Government under Shri Narendra Modi at the Centre and Shri Shivraj Singh Chauhan in Madhya Pradesh is determined to bring happiness to the lives of every poor of the state.

***

RK/AY/AKS/AS