Goemkarponn desk
VASCO: One of the biggest batches of around 900 devotees left for Tirupati from Vasco Railway station under the CM Dev Darshan Yatra scheme.
Mormugao MLA Sankalp Amonkar, along with his wife and Councillor Shraddha Amonkar, Mormugao BJP Mandal President Sanjay Satardekar, Ravindra Bhavan Chairman Jayant Jadhav and others greeted the devotees on the Vasco Railway station and wished them well for the journey.
Later speaking to the media, Amonkar expressed gratitude to the CM, Dr Pramod Sawant and Social Welfare Minister Subhash Faldesai for the scheme that had benefited a lot of families, especially the senior citizens from Mormugao Constituency.
“Such schemes promote unity and religious well-being in society and have to reach everyone so they can visit the religious places,” he said.
He said the scheme has made many people happy because they feel lucky to visit religious places without any money being spent and have the entire trip well organised from start to end.
“The batch is of around 900 devotees, of which around 90 per cent have never been to Tirupati before, and they have been giving their blessings to the Government for providing this opportunity. This train will now leave from Vasco to Margao, and the train to Tirupati will be flagged off from Margao at the hands of Social Welfare Minister Subhash Faldesai himself,” said, Amonkar.
Amonkar thanked all his Karyakartas who went house to house, explaining the CM Dev Darshan Yatra scheme and its benefits to the people.
“We have received many more applications, as many as around 1400 from devotees who want to go to Shirdi, Vailankanni and Ajmer, and we will soon make arrangements to get this batch moving towards other religious places as well within the next 15 days,” said Amonkar.
Municipal Councillor Shraddha Amonkar said that many senior citizens had reservations about participating in the scheme.
“Many devotees are senior citizens, and some are not in a very good financial position while some need persons to take care of them as senior citizens. Our Karyakartas have explained that the entire trip is well organised, and people will be travelling as a big group with food and accommodation, and even Darshan made available to them,” he said.
Entire Families of people have left for this trip where every arrangement is made, from start to end. Many people, especially senior citizens, have now fulfilled their dreams through the Goa Government, he said.
“Our Karyakartas have also played a major role by explaining the schemes and even filling their forms, thus building confidence amongst devotees on the CM Dev Darshan Yatra scheme,” said Amonkar.
