Nagpur: Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday announced that the state govt has allotted a plot of nearly 37,000 sq ft at Babulkheda to Charmkar Seva Sangh for a Sant Ravidas Maharaj memorial, and pledged state funding for a complex that will also house an e-library and a community hall.Fadnavis was addressing Sangh’s 18th felicitation of nearly 495 Charmkar community students scoring over 65% in Classes 10 and 12. Fadnavis announced statewide celebrations of Ravidas’ 650th birth anniversary from this year.On the saint’s philosophy, he said, “Sant Ravidas Maharaj said, ‘Man changa toh kathauti mein Ganga.’ If your mind is not pure, even bathing in Ganga cannot wash away your sins. But if the mind is pure, even the water in a cobbler’s vessel is purer than Ganga. Purity lies in the mind, not in the river,” he said, noting 43 of Ravidas’ dohas were in Guru Granth Sahib.On the Swayam scheme, Fadnavis said, “Students unable to secure hostel admission receive Rs 60,000 annually for rent and food. If a student secures admission to any of the world’s top 300 universities, the state pays their tuition fees. Thousands of students who would have been deprived of foreign education due to lack of funds, we have opened that path for them,” he said.Union minister Nitin Gadkari, who spoke before Fadnavis, urged a focus on skills alongside formal education. “Education is not just engineering, medicine, professorship or journalism. Whether it is nursing for girls, footwear-making or driving skills, education is linked to skills. It must be employment-oriented,” he said. Recalling the footwear design institute he set up in Agra as Union MSME minister, he said, “Craftsmen there learnt internationally competitive designs and built crore-worth businesses. Quality work will always find a market.”On the rise in marks over 18 years, Fadnavis said, “When this programme began, the highest marks were around 78-80%. Today our students are reaching 97%. This is truly the community’s progress.” Class 10 topper Himanshu Gore scored 97.4% and Class 12 topper Samruddhi Vasankar scored nearly 94%.
