look news india
Ahmedabad, August 13 (HS). The state government is running some such schemes, through which thousands of devotees are getting government assistance and visiting their favorite pilgrimage places. More than 1 lakh 42 thousand devotees have benefited from the various pilgrimage schemes being run by the state government for the devotees in the last 7 years. Out of these, the maximum number of 1 lakh 38 thousand 748 devotees have benefited under the Shravan Tirtha Darshan Yojana.
Gujarat Pavitra Yatradham Vikas Board (GPYVB) secretary R.R. Raval said that the board runs various schemes to help devotees visit their holy places and have darshan of their Isht Dev and the most popular among these schemes is Shravan Tirth Darshan Yojana. In this scheme, the state government is playing the role of Shravan to make senior citizens go on pilgrimage.
Apart from Shravan Teerth Darshan Yojana, other schemes are also being run by GPYVB, out of which Kailash Mansarovar Yojana and Sindhu Darshan Yojana are important. Under Shravan Teerth Darshan Yojana, senior citizens were taken on pilgrimage by 2850 buses. Shravan Teerth Darshan Yojana, implemented by the state government from the year 2017-18, is quite popular for providing pilgrimage to senior citizens living in the state at concessional rates. Under the scheme, the state government has so far taken 1 lakh 38 thousand 748 devotees on pilgrimage by 2850 buses and has paid assistance of Rs 10 crore 25 lakh 75 thousand for this.
It is noteworthy that under the Shravan Tirtha Darshan Yojana implemented from 1 May 2017, Gujarat Foundation Day, senior citizens aged 60 years and above are provided group tours to their favourite pilgrimage sites. Under the scheme, senior travellers are given 75 percent of the cost of State Transport (ST) Corporation's super non-AC bus, mini non-AC bus, sleeper coach i.e. bus travel expenses by the government. Apart from this, every traveller is given Rs 100 and maximum Rs 300 as assistance including Rs 50 for one day's food and Rs 50 for accommodation.
The government increased the assistance amount for the Kailash Mansarovar Yojana
2564 devotees from Gujarat have availed the benefit of Kailash Mansarovar Yojana and for this the state government has paid assistance of Rs 581.49 lakh. The state government used to pay assistance of Rs 23,000 to the Gujarati pilgrims going on this pilgrimage after their return, but last year this incentive amount has been increased to Rs 50,000 by the state government led by Bhupendra Patel. Similarly, under the Sindhu Darshan Yojana implemented from the year 2017, 1654 beneficiaries have done this pilgrimage, to whom the state government has provided assistance of Rs 2 crore 63 lakh 10 thousand. This scheme has been implemented for the people of Sindhi community residing in Gujarat who wish to participate in the Sindhu Darshan festival organized in Leh-Ladakh, similar to Bhal in India. People of Sindhi community participate in large numbers in this festival organized every year on the day of Guru Purnima and experience purity by taking a bath in Sindhu. Under this scheme of the state government, 300 passengers get assistance. Rs 15,000 assistance is given per beneficiary. If the number of passengers is more than 300, 300 beneficiaries are selected through draw system.