Patting his Cabinet Minister Gopal Bhargava, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said he (minister) has set an example by marrying off his two children at a mass marriage function on Wednesday. “Bhargava has turned into a social reformer,” Chouhan said at a mass marriage function where 1,400 couples from different castes, creed and religions, including two children of the minister, entered into wedlock at Garhakota region near Sarar.
An MlA from Rahali Assembly, Bhargava's son Abhishek, an MBA, wedded Shipli Acharya, a local girl, who is also an MBA, and daughter, Avantika, a doctor, tied the nuptial knot with Nitin Sharma, an engineer-based in Boston, US, in a mass marriage ceremony, held under the Mukhya Mantri Kanyadaan Yojana.
The MP Panchayat, Rural Development and Social Justice Minister had also invited Prime Minister to his children's marriages. “Few days ago, when I met the Prime Minister to invite him for weddings of my son and daughter, I told him that they would be married off in a mass marriage function. Modiji patted me saying that I was doing a good work,” Bhargava told.
Bhargava, who has been an MlA since 1985, has been a champion of mass marriages in the Bundelkhand region and helped organise various mass weddings where more than 14,000 couples have got married in 14 years, BJP leader Shailesh Kesharwani said. As many as 1,400 couples including 28 Muslim couples tied the nuptial knot in the ceremony on Wednesday.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has described mass marriage functions as Mahakumbh of social equality. He said that in such programmes, marriages of girls of every caste and creed are solemnised under one Mandap as per their religious rites.
The Chief Minister said that apart from undertaking works like water, power and roads, social reform is also responsibility of the Government. He said that the country where women and girls are not respected never make progress. In order to enhance women’s participation, Madhya Pradesh Government has given 50 per cent reservation to them in local body elections. Recently, 30 per cent posts in police recruitment have been reserved for women.
Chouhan said that the Government is providing Rs12,000 per head to the couples getting married at mass marriage functions, whose houses are devoid of toilet. They would construct toilets using this amount. Wishing newlywed couples bright future, he prayed for their long life and happiness.