Following the footsteps of MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, the State Cabinet on Tuesday gave its approval to ‘Mukhyamantri Tirth Yojana’ under which people above the age of 60 years coming under BPl category will be sent on pilgrimage by the State Government.

Under the pilgrimage scheme, followers of “all the religions and communities can undertake journey to any pilgrimage centre of their choice”.

Eligibility criteria for a person to be sent on pilgrimage will be decided by the Deputy Commissioner at the district level on first come first serve basis. The Cabinet on Tuesday gave its approval to a total of 9 proposals of various departments of the state Government.

“Under this programme, any citizen of the State above the age of 60 years coming under BPl category will be facilitated by the State Government to go on pilgrimage twice in his life to the destinations located both inside and outside the state,” said Cabinet Secretary SS Meena. There must be a gap of two years between the two pilgrimages, he said.

Places which have been listed for the purpose includes – Rajrappa, Deoghar, Sammed Shikher, Basukinath, Maluti and Itkhori in Jharkhand while destinations outside the State includes places like – Dwarika, Puri, Bhubaneswar, Tirupati, Madurai, Remeshwaram, Haridwar, Rishikesh, Vaishno Devi, Jammu, Shirdi, Amritsar, Agra, Fetehpur Shikri, Amritsar, Shravan Belgola, Belantini Church, Nagpattanam etc, he said.

“The pilgrims under this programme will be provided special travel equipments and guides along with them. There is also a provision of travel insurance for the person going on pilgrimage and they can also take an attendant along with them during the journey,” Meena said.  An agreement will be signed between IRCTC and Jharkhand Tourism Development Corporation for the purpose he said.

A sum of Rs 1.6 core has been sanctioned for the implementation of this programme.

In another decision, the Cabinet approved Jharkhand Rajya Jal Vigyan Pariyojana under which the data of water resources will be developed systematically and Water and land Management Institute will also be constituted under this programme. 

“With the availability of data, better management of ground and service water could be done and implementation plan is being prepared for the same,” Meena said.

The Cabinet also gave its approval to the proposed MoU to be signed between Union Ministry of Civil Aviation, Jharkhand Government and Airports Authority of India limited under the guidelines issued under National Civil Aviation Policy – 2016 regarding the State Government’s commitment to promote regional communication.