Gurgaon: Haryana’s govt machinery will spend the next month running a statewide calendar around Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 25-year public journey. Schoolchildren will join painting and speech contests, anganwadi and ASHA workers will take part in special programmes, officials will hold welfare-scheme camps and villages will stage street plays.Described by the state govt as a “mass movement of service”, the ‘Seva Sankalp Abhiyan’ began on the PM’s 76th birthday on Thursday and will continue till Oct 17. Oct 7 will mark 25 years since Modi became Gujarat chief minister. Officials said the campaign is intended to take PM Modi’s 2-decade-old journey of public service, good governance and nation-building to citizens and encourage public participation.The programme began with blood donation camps and ‘Aashirwad Ka Diya’, under which earthen lamps were lit at homes in the evening. Over the next one month, officials in the district administration have been asked to coordinate the exercise, record each and every event and publicise them. Across Haryana, govt has also asked officials to identify major projects and locations linked to PM Modi for the special programmes.The education department’s role, for instance, will centre on schools. Painting and speech competitions on “India of My Dreams” will be held from Sept 17 to Oct 7, moving from village to block, district and state levels. The women and child development machinery will run ‘Aangan Milan Seva’ programmes from Sept 25 to Oct 7, involving mothers and children and recognising anganwadi and ASHA workers.The district and field machinery has been assigned the wider outreach programmes. Villages will hold street plays, music and presentations on Oct 2. Seva Jyoti yatras, cleanliness drives, plantation, blood donation and health camps will be held through the month. Block-level ‘Seva Setu’ camps will be organised in every assembly constituency to provide information on govt schemes and help residents access services.The campaign will also include rangoli events, youth dialogues and an ‘innovation challenge’ for students, startups, professionals and grassroots innovators. Selected participants will showcase their work at a national-level programme. The month will end with a ‘Jansevak Mahakumbh’ on Oct 17.Nodal officers at state and district levels will handle coordination, field implementation and reporting. The chief secretary has reviewed district action plans with deputy commissioners, scheduled activities across all 23 districts. Departments have also been asked to publicise events on social media and make at least 10 reels a month.The series of events will bring additional work to departments engaged in routine delivery of services for the public. No separate manpower or administrative cost estimate has been made public so far. The plan also does not spell out how routine work will be insulated from the added assignments.BJP is separately mobilising its organisation for the month-long celebrations. Its state leadership has asked all 377 organisational mandals to hold workshops and assign responsibilities to party functionaries and elected representatives.
