Gujarat Confidential: ITI Students At Work

Raju Rathod, an ITI student working as an apprentice at the plant, was asked by Rupani if he enjoyed working there. (Source: File)

At an event by the Labour Department that also kicked off a job fair last week, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani decided to have an interaction through a video conference with Industrial Training Institute (ITI) students working at the Hansalpur plant of the Suzuki Motor Gujarat Pvt Ltd. in Ahmedabad district. Raju Rathod, an ITI student working as an apprentice at the plant, was asked by Rupani if he enjoyed working there. Pat came Rathod’s reply, “We get good food to eat,” leading to peals of laughter from the audience at Gandhinagar. “Good to know that you are happy,” retorted the CM. Rathod further said that Suzuki Motors — which was recently pulled up by the government for its poor enrollment of “locals” in its workforce — is providing facilities for meals, dormitories and a stipend of Rs 13,500.

‘Unusual’ Mix

The celebrations of Ayushman Bharat’s first anniversary at Gandhinagar on Monday, chaired by Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel — who also holds the portfolio of Health and Family Welfare — were marked by an interesting and unusual mix of politicians. Seated on the dais along with Nitin Patel was Congress MLA C J Chavda, who is rarely seen at government events, but this one could be justified since he represents the North Gandhinagar constituency. The more conspicuous presence, however, was that of Abdasa Congress MLA Pradhyuman Jadeja, which left everyone speculating. After the event, when asked if he was planning to “switch” parties, he smiled and declined stating he had no such plans but was present as an elected representative of Abdasa voters. Three other MLAs at the event were Mahuva Surat BJP MLA Mohanbhai Dodiya, Kadi (Mehsana) BJP MLA Karsanbhai Solanki and Gandhinagar South BJP MLA Shambhuji Thakor. The absence of Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Kishor Kanani was also conspicuous and talked about.

‘Powerful’ Friends

At the Ayushman Bharat event, at a time when Gujarat is in the grip of vector-borne diseases, Deputy CM Nitin Patel decided to draw a comparison from the ‘Howdy Modi’ event at Houston, saying, “It is no small achievement that the president of the most powerful country in the world attended the event, which was organised for the PM to meet Indians and Gujaratis in the US. Saheb (Modi) is fond of making friends and if these friends are powerful, they can be of use to you sometime. We still have to kill these mosquitoes and pests…If we ‘eradicate’ the epidemic of terrorism, then we need the support of friends, apart from the military.”