MP govt mulls including air travel in senior citizens' pilgrimage scheme

The Madhya Pradesh government is contemplating to take senior citizens for pilgrimage by air under the Mukhyamantri Teerth Darshan Yojana, which is going to restart from next month, a senior minister said on Saturday. The issue was discussed on the first day of a two-day brainstorming session of the MP cabinet headed by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan at Pachmarhi, the state's lone hill station in Narmadapuram district, some 210 kilometres from the state capital.

"Mukhyamantri Teerth Darshan Yojana (a free pilgrimage scheme for senior citizens) will start again in April in a renewed form. Four trains will operate in the month of April. In the first train, the Chief Minister and all the ministers will go to Kashi to offer prayers at Kashi Vishwanath and take a dip in the Ganga," Minister for Home Narottam Mishra, who is also state government spokesperson, told reporters at Pachmarhi.

"There was also discussion on organising such pilgrimages via bus and trains for small groups. It was also discussed to take senior citizens to distant pilgrim centres via air," he informed.


When asked in this regard later, Mishra said there was agreement in the cabinet that senior citizens should be taken by flight to distant pilgrimage destinations.

So far, an entire train is run to the pilgrim destinations under this scheme.

Mishra said the cabinet also discussed the Mukhyamantri Kanyadan Yojana (a scheme for the marriage of girls belonging to poor families), which is currently implemented by two departments.

It was also discussed that this scheme should now be run by one department, and that the financial aid given under it be increased, he said.

The proposal of making fair price shops as all purpose shops was also discussed in the meeting, as well as installing GPS in the vehicles involved in the transportation of ration, he added.