Gujarat: 150 km march for Gandhi''s birth anniversary celebrations

Ahmedabad, January 15

A 150 kilometre long padyatra (foot march) will be organised in Gujarat's Bhavnagar district for a week starting Tuesday as part of the sesquicentennial birth anniversary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi.

As many as 150 Gandhians will participate in the walk which will pass through 'buniyadi shalas', or schools founded on Gandhian ideology, and 150 different programmes will be held en route, Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Tuesday.

"The country is celebrating the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. As part of this celebration, a padyatra will be taken out in Bhavnagar for a week starting January 16," Mandaviya told reporters at Sabarmati Ashram.

"The yatra will cover 150 kilometres and will connect buniyadi shalas running on Gandhi's ideology in the district.

The yatra will connect 150 villages and will have 150 prominent people following Gandhian ideology being part of the yatra throughout," said the union minister for road transport and highways.

The yatra will begin from Manar village in the district's Talaja taluka and will conclude at Sanosara village in Sihor taluka, he said.

He said 14 public gatherings will be held along the route of the yatra which will be addressed by ministers, Gandhians, social activists and journalists.

"As many as 150 programmes and public gatherings will be held en route the yatra, expounding Gandhian thoughts," he said.

He said the purpose of the yatra was to acquaint the young generation with Mahatma Gandhi's ideology and to draw people's attention to the educational model propagated by the Mahatma. — PTI