Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and their families will join a fully government-paid pilgrimage for senior citizens to Vaishno Devi via train on July 20.
The pilgrimage is a part of ‘Mukhyamantri Tirth Yatra Yojana’, under which the government will fund the pilgrimage of citizens aged above 60, to different places in India, including their travel, stay, and food. The pilgrimage will cover the Delhi-Vaishno Devi-Jammu corridor from July 20 to 24.
Mr. Kejriwal will flag off the first trip under the scheme for Golden Temple-Wagah Border-Anandpur Sahib corridor on July 12. The beneficiaries are selected on a first come, first served basis and 77,000 people — 1,100 from each Assembly constituency — will be sent on pilgrimage every year.
On Thursday, Mr. Kejriwal made the announcement at Delhi Secretariat Auditorium while interacting with people slated to go on the tirth yatra in batches — first on July 12 and second on July 20. “To all the elderly citizens of Delhi, I want to say, this son of yours will send you on at least one ‘tirth yatra’ in your lifetime,” he said.
Attacking the Opposition, the Chief Minister said, “The Opposition is trying to politicise this issue. But I want to tell them that I will continue spending money on the elderly.”
The other three routes under the scheme are Delhi-Mathura-Vrindavan-Agra-Fatehpur Sikri-Delhi, Delhi-Haridwar-Rishikesh-Neelkanth-Delhi, Delhi-Ajmer-Pushkar-Delhi.
