Kota:

Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan on Friday said Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s objection to Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar’s “frequent” visits to Rajasthan reflects he is not interested in the state’s development.

Noting that Vice President Dhankhar is the “son of Rajasthan” and a farmer, Mr Muraleedharan said the visits by the President and Vice President will benefit any state and there is no politics in it.

“I am surprised why the chief minister here is objecting to such issue. It reflects that the chief minister is not interested in development and progress of the state,” Mr Muraleedharan told the media on the sidelines of inauguration of Rajasthan’s second and country’s 37th regional passport office in Kota.

Mr Gehlot should welcome the vice president warmly, instead of objecting to his frequent visits, he added.

The senior Congress leader had said in a rally on Thursday, “Yesterday, the Vice President came and visited five districts. What is the logic? Elections are to be held soon… if you come during this, it will have different meanings and messages, which will not be good for democracy”.

On the allegation of avoiding the Manipur violence issue, Mr Muraleedharan said no one in the party and in government avoided the issue and added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke in detail about the government’s policy and its efforts on the subject in the parliament and outside.

Home Minister Amit Shah himself visited Imphal and spoke to the people there, he further said.

Mr Muraleedharan also condemned leaders of the opposition INDIA bloc for their alleged silence on “disgraceful remarks” on Sanatan Dharma.

The opening of the new regional passport office would benefit people from around 15 districts including Kota, Bundi, Jhalawar, Baran, Swai Madhopur, Chittorgarh, Bhilwara, Udaipur, Pratapgarh, Dungerpur, Banswara, Rajsamand and newly formed district Shahapura, Ganjapur and Salumbar.

The Union minister said there were only 77 passport centres in the county in 2014, but now the number has gone up to 500 in nine years. The Narendra Modi-led government is committed to enabling every countryman to avail passport services easily, he added.

Kota MP and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla joined the inauguration ceremony virtually, while MP from Tonk-Sawai Madhopur Sukhbir Singh Jaunapuria, MLA Sandeep Sharma, Madan Dilawar, Kalpna Devi, Chandrakanta Meghwal and Ashok Dogra were present on the occasion with MoS Muraleedharan.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala:

Union Minister of State (MoS) V Muraleedharan and several Bharatiya Janata Party workers welcomed the Kasaragod-Thiruvananthapuram Vande Bharat Express train that reached the district’s Central Station late Sunday evening around 11 pm.

V Muraleedharan, while speaking to ANI, said that this is the first time in the history of Indian Railways that a train has become a celebrity.

“The second Vande Bharat allocated for Kerala which was inaugurated by PM Modi has travelled and reached Thiruvananthapuram. It has been a lifetime experience for everyone who travelled on this train. The thousands of people who gathered at various railway stations, thousands of people including school children who travelled in the train, every one of them told me how they loved, how they cherished the travel. There were thousands of people who were taking selfies with the train…Perhaps this is the first time in the history of India, in the history of Indian Railways that a train has become a celebrity,” he said.

The second semi-high-speed train of Kerala was among the nine Vande Bharat Express, which were flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday.

People welcomed the Vande Bharat on its arrival at the Thiruvananthapuram Central Station by clicking pictures and showering flower petals.

“I must thank the Prime Minister for providing this world-class facility to the state of Kerala,” added V Muraleedharan.

The train will operate six days a week except Tuesday from Kasaragod-Thiruvananthapuram up and down. It will take 8 hours and 5 minutes to reach its destination. The second train dedicated to the state will be operated via the Alappuzha route while the first Vande Bharat is being operated via Kottayam.

Apart from Kasargod-Thiruvananthapuram, the other new trains flagged off on Sunday, are Udaipur-Jaipur Vande Bharat Express, Tirunelveli-Madurai-Chennai Vande Bharat Express, Hyderabad-Bengaluru Vande Bharat Express, Vijayawada-Chennai (via Renigunta) Vande Bharat Express, Patna-Howrah Vande Bharat Express, Rourkela-Bhubaneswar-Puri Vande Bharat Express, Ranchi-Howrah Vande Bharat Express and Jamnagar-Ahmedabad Vande Bharat Express.

The Vande Bharat train is an initiative of the government under PM Modi’s vision of ‘Make in India’.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)