Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel
Today, the Bhupendra Patel government in Gujarat is completing three years. I remember very well that when his name was announced as the Chief Minister of Gujarat in the meeting of MLAs held on 11 September 2021, hardly anyone in Gujarat could believe that he would be the next Chief Minister of Gujarat, perhaps he himself could not believe hearing his name. On that, many new ministers were kept in his cabinet.
Gave a new direction to the development of Gujarat
People thought that this experiment of Prime Minister Narendra Modi will fail but those who know a little about the working style of the Prime Minister know that whoever he selects for any task, he fully supports him and also guides him. Its result is in front of the people of Gujarat today. I am not saying that there were no shortcomings in the last three years but many such futuristic decisions were also taken which have given a new direction to the development of Gujarat.
Unprecedented changes in the field of health
If we look from the beginning, the biggest challenge before Gujarat, which is recovering from the corona epidemic, was to quickly complete the vaccination target, which his government completed effectively. Not only this, in the field of health, the number of Ayushman card holders was increased to 2.6 crores in the last three years. Digital health cards were given to about 1.15 crore students. 188 centers with free dialysis facilities were built in the state.
2700 arrested in campaign against drugs
In the last three years, under the biggest campaign against drugs, drugs worth Rs 9680 crore have been seized, the volume of which would be around 90 thousand kilos and about 2700 people have been arrested. These are facts that no one can deny.
Apart from this, another big achievement is the provision of speedy justice in crimes against women. Can anyone ever imagine that a charge sheet can be filed in just 9 days in a case of rape of a girl, but this happened. Recently, Valsad police did this. Apart from this, if we look at the statistics, we will know how much the conviction has increased in such cases.
In 2021, 71 criminals were convicted, in 2022, 92 criminals were convicted, in 2023, 265 criminals were convicted, while in 2024, till August 31, 267 criminals have been convicted. Not only this, the trials have also been expedited. In 2022, a chargesheet was filed in just 24 hours in the case of rape of a minor in Bhavnagar. The criminal was sentenced to life imprisonment in 52 days. In the case of murder of a 21-year-old woman in Kamarej, Surat, a chargesheet was filed in 9 days. The verdict came in 82 days. In which the criminal was sentenced to death. Gujarat Police unfreezing about 2.58 bank accounts of cyber fraud victims in just 20 days has been the most practical decision of this government. The way the work of removing illegal constructions and sanitizing the region on the coastline of Gujarat adjoining Pakistan has been going on for the last two years, has probably been the most important drive of this government.
Learning from the working style of Narendra Modi as Chief Minister, today Gujarat is making its mark as a policy driven state in the industrial and social sector. The Bhupendra Patel administration has declared 11 new policies for the development of 3 new emerging sectors.
Gujarat Atmanirbhar Policy Gujarat Biotechnology Policy New Gujarat IT Policy Gujarat Sports Policy Drone Policy Gujarat Semiconductor Policy Gujarat Renewable Energy Policy Cinematic Tourism Policy Student Start-up and Innovation Policy Gujarat Purchase Policy Gujarat Green Hydrocarbon Policy
In the last three years, Gujarat has been developing itself as a manufacturing hub for sunshine sectors such as semiconductors and as a renewable energy hub with the production of 29.13 GW of renewable energy till August 31. This capacity will more than double after the world’s largest RE PARK taking shape in Kutch is fully commissioned. Many progressive steps have also been taken in the field of education. Especially to encourage girl education and its results are also being seen.
The dropout rate of girl students in primary education (classes 1 to 5), which was 20.53 percent in the year 2001-02, has come down to 1.31 percent in the year 2022-23. More than 2 lakh daughters got financial assistance for education under the Wali Dikri scheme- Under this scheme, the state government provides assistance of Rs 1,10,000 in a phased manner till the daughter turns 18 years old. From the beginning of this scheme till the year 2024, 2,37,012 daughters have been registered. Beneficiary daughters will start getting the benefit of this scheme from next year 2025. ‘Namo Laxmi’ scheme launched to encourage education of daughters- Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel has implemented ‘Namo Laxmi Yojana’ this year to provide financial assistance of Rs 50,000 to girls studying in classes 9 to 12 in the state during four years. Promotion of girl education through Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV)- Along with the provision of free education for girls from class 6 to 12 in KGBV, the all-round development of girls is done by providing facilities like free accommodation, food, life skill development training, self-defense and sports training. Under this scheme, a total of 249 KGBVs were operating till the year 2023-24. In this, special focus is given on those girls who have dropped out due to any reason. Chief Minister Kanya Kelvani Nidhi Yojana to assist daughters in the field of medical education- Since the launch of the scheme in the year 2017-18, the state has provided financial assistance of Rs 573.50 crore to 19,776 bright girl students. Under this scheme, assistance of Rs 171.55 crore has been given to 4982 girl students studying medicine in the year 2023-24.
Bhupendra Patel and his cabinet were always dismissed in political circles as first timers, but the way this administration has taken progressive decisions has forced everyone to think.
The most important was the successful organisation of the National Games in Gujarat in 2022 after just three months of preparation. Due to some reasons, the National Games had to be shifted from Goa to Gujarat and these first timers did it. In the 2022 elections, Bhupendra Patel and CR Patil together gave BJP its biggest ever victory in Gujarat. Changes in the liquor policy to promote the global business environment in GIFT CITY indicate a dynamic thinking. The way the Biporjoy cyclone was handled by these first timers in 2023 with zero casualties became an example in itself.
Local politics dominates
I am seeing that these days the current Gujarat government is being questioned for its handling of the floods in Vadodara. I have written about it earlier as well. The administration in Vadodara took several measures for flood management and I have also presented the facts about it. Then why did the perception arise that no work was done in Vadodara? The local politics of Vadodara and the local BJP leaders are responsible for this. Their Aerogena has spoiled all their efforts.
Challenges before the government
This is going to be the biggest challenge in the coming days for the Bhupendra Patel government with 161 MLAs. The public has made him so powerful but their expectations have also increased to the same extent. You will not be able to fulfill all your expectations at once but it is most important to control the arrogance of the leaders at the lower level.
The first responsibility is to change people’s perception towards the administration
Today people in Gujarat are saying that Bhupendra Dada and his ministers are very good but the connect of small leaders with the public is ending. Bhupendra Patel is simple and mild-natured, has his local leaders become very arrogant? When you are ruling with 161 seats, then it is very natural for this perception to develop in the absence of the opposition. The only need is that Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel should also aggressively express his opinion on some organizational issues. Till now we have seen that even after becoming the Chief Minister, Bhupendra Patel was seen attending party meetings as a worker. Well, in the circumstances in which he took charge of Gujarat, his first responsibility was to change the perception of the people towards the administration, in which he also succeeded.
CM Patel is holding a meeting with district officials
At the same time, the organization was also getting reorganized well under the supervision of Patel. Now Patel has also gone to Delhi, which means a new face will definitely come as the state president. Therefore, Bhupendra Patel’s responsibility towards the organization increases even more. By the way, it has been learned that for the last one-two months, Bhupendra Bhai is calling the officials of different districts of Gujarat to his house every week and holding meetings so that a balance is established between the administration and the organization.