)
Union minister for human resource development (HRD), Smriti Irani, on Friday met with Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel and later took part in state’s annual school enrollment drive — ‘Shala Praveshotsav’ in Gandhinagar.
Irani is the second union minister to visit Gujarat after the new Narendra Modi-led government took charge at the Centre.
Last week, minister for power, coal and renewable energy Piyush Goyal visited the state and announced that Gujarat’s ‘Jyotigram Yojna’, for providing 24x7 electricity to rural areas for domestic and irrigation purpose, will be replicated across the country.
The HRD minister today met with Patel at her official residence and later joined her in inaugurating the school enrollment drive from Kudasan village of Gandhinagar.
While meeting Patel, Irani also discussed various education related programmes of the state particularly those focusing on girl child education.
The Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat also enrolled a group of girls in a primary school in Kudasan village. After participating in the school enrolment drive Irani posted pictures of her with the school children and on the microblogging site Tweeter and wrote, “Sharing photographs of Shala Praveshotsav and Kanya Kelavani Mahotsav at Primary School, Kudasan, Gandhinagar.”
Irani, who visited Gujarat for the first time after becoming the Union Minister last month, also inaugurated a smart school for primary children in Kudasan village of Gandhinagar.
The three-day school enrolment drive was initiated 12-years ago by then Chief Minister Narendra Modi and is now an annual event of the state, where state ministers, senior bureaucrats and government officials go to different villages in the state and encourage parents to enroll their children in school.
