1. AIIMS to be Set Up Near Rajkot, Says Deputy CM Nitin Patel
On Thursday the Gujarat Government announced that an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) will be established near Rajkot. The Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana under the Union Ministry of Health informed the Gujarat Health Department on Wednesday evening that an AIIMS has been allocated to Rajkot.
Dy CM Nitin Patel thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for ‘this gift to Gujarat’. Patel added the state government would give 120 acre land free-of-cost for the 800-1,000 bed AIIMS to be built at an estimated cost of Rs 1,200 crore.
“The Ministry of Health has conveyed it that the Centre has decided to set up AIIMS at Khandheri village near Rajkot city. We have already identified land which will be given free,” Patel told reporters in Gandhinagar.
(Source: Indian Express)
2. Over 3,000 Beneficiaries Given Self-Employment Kits at Garib Kalyan Mela
The 11th Garib Kalyan Mela (GKM) was inaugurated in Porbandar by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Thursday. At the Mela Rupani handed out self-employment kits worth over Rs 1.61 crore to 3,414 beneficiaries for 28 different trades.
An official release said that 15,467 beneficiaries have been provided aid worth Rs 11.12 crore in the preceding months of the ongoing financial year 2018-19. Overall, 18,881 beneficiaries from BPL (Below Poverty Line) families and differently-abled have been handed over self-employment kits and aid worth Rs 12.74 crore.
Some beneficiaries were given a beauty parlour kit, which included a chair, brushes, containers and bowls etc; while others got dairying kit, which included a milk can, a milk skimmer, a large cooking pan and four crates; motor garage kit, which included a jack, a few sickles, an oil dropper, among other things.
(Source: Indian Express)
3. Allotment of AIIMS for Gujarat is Election-Oriented: Congress
Although the Congress welcomed the allotment of AIIMS for Gujarat, the party said that Centre’s generosity towards the state is election-oriented.
In a statement, state Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said, “After four-and-a-half years, something good has dawn on BJP leadership and they approved AIIMS for Gujarat. Had the central BJP government done it immediately after coming to power in May 2014, the institute would have started by now and people would have started getting its benefit.”
He said that it is the central government that would fund the setting up of the institute and operate it afterwards. “What is the state government doing for providing health facilities to the people from its own budget? Most of the primary health centres and hospitals in remote areas are without adequate doctors and paramedical staff.”
(Source: Indian Express)
4. VGS: UAE, Uzbekistan, Morocco Confirm as Partner Countries
The ninth edition of Vibrant Gujarat Summit is scheduled to begin on January 18 and will have the highest representation of Muslim nations as ‘partner countries’.
United Arab Emirates (UAE) was the first Islamic nation to join the summit as a ‘partner country’ in 2017. This year a troika of nations — including Morocco, UAE and Uzbekistan — have joined the summit that first began in 2003 to attract investments.
It was Japan who first came forward as a partner country in the 2009 for the summit that began in 2003. It was only in 2015, that the US and the UK joined the summit as partner countries and brought along ministerial delegations.
(Source: Indian Express)
5. Student Gets Locked in Classroom, Stays There All Night
A Class 6 student of a Government-run primary school in Arvalli district of Gujarat had to spend an entire night in the classroom after he was locked inside accidentally. The incident took place at Chhikari village in Meghraj tehsil, around 150 km from here.
District primary education officer A K Patel said he has ordered an inquiry. "The class teacher had left the school at 4.30 pm yesterday for some official work. He had asked the class monitor to lock the classroom after the school hours. The monitor locked the room unaware that this boy was still inside," the official said.
His parents searched for him everywhere in the village. “Finally they took the school teacher along and came to the school around 4.30 am....The teacher opened the lock and found him inside,” Patel said. The taluka (tehsil) primary education officer has been asked to conduct an inquiry
(Source: PTI)
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