Ready to rejoin Congress to fight BJP in Gujarat: Former Guj CM Shankersinh Vaghela
Ahmedabad, Feb 3: Former Gujarat chief minister Shankersinh Vaghela, who had quit the Congress in 2017 after remaining in it for two decades, on Wednesday said he was ready to return to the party without any pre-conditions to fight the ruling BJP in the state.
Vaghela, 80, who currently heads a little-known political outfit called the the Praja Shakti Democratic Party (PSDP), issued a statement in which he claimed that many Congress workers and leaders have been urging him to return to the party.
However, before Vaghela's statement, the state Congress earlier in the day denied as "rumours" the reports that he wouldrejoin the party in the coming days.
Vaghela had quit the Congress before the 2017 Gujarat Assembly polls. Two years later, he had joined the Sharad Pawar-led NCP. However, in June last year, he had resigned from the NCP due to some differences and floated the PSDP.
In his statement, Vaghela claimed that many Congress workers urged him "with tears in their eyes" to rejoin the party when he was at Piraman village in Bharuch district last year to attend Congress leader Ahmed Patel's funeral.
"Apart from these workers, many Congress leaders have been insisting that I should join Congress. I am ready to join the Congress without any pre-conditions to fight the BJP. I have no problem in joining Congress. I will take an appropriate decision after meeting madam Sonia jee and Rahul Gandhi in Delhi," the senior leader said.
Before Vaghela's statement, state Congress spokesperson Jayrajsinh Parmar said, "I have learned from the media that Vaghela is joining the Congress. I want to clarify that there is no such thing as of now. As far as I know, Vaghela has not contacted any of our leaders for the comeback.
I think only Vaghela can shed light on these rumours."
Vaghela's party has already announced that it will not field its candidates in the upcoming local body polls in Gujarat in order to stop the anti-BJP vote division.
Vaghela had started his political career with the BJP.
After the BJP came to power in the state in 1995 and chose to make Keshubhai Patel the chief minister instead of him, Vaghela engineered a split in the saffron outfit and became the CM in 1996 with outside support of the Congress.
Later, he joined the Congress and served as Textile Minister in the Manmohan Singh government.
While in the Congress, he had also served as its state unit president and Leader of Opposition in the Gujarat Assembly.
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Maharashtra sets up state vaccination task force to strengthen immunisation programme
Mumbai (PTI): The Maharashtra government has set up a State Vaccination Task Force to strengthen the regular immunisation programme and review the progress of related campaigns, a health department official said on Monday.
The State Vaccination Task Force will comprise at least 29 members and will be headed by the administrative head of the health department, he informed.
The government has also constituted separate district-level and municipal vaccination task forces to improve implementation and address challenges at the grassroots level, he said.
Municipal task forces, chaired by respective civic commissioners, have been constituted in view of the vast urban population in Maharashtra and the role of civic bodies in implementing different health programmes.
The district-level task forces will function under the chairmanship of collectors.
"Complete immunisation of children at the appropriate age is an extremely simple, cost-effective and highly effective measure to reduce child mortality and the prevalence of diseases among kids. Immunisation is a powerful tool for reducing illness in children," maintained the official.
To ensure full vaccination of all children, the state government implements various campaigns from time to time as per the central government guidelines, he pointed out.
"Active participation and cooperation of other relevant government departments are essential (in making these campaigns successful)," according to the official.
The state-level body will review the regular immunisation programme, associated campaigns and vaccine-preventable diseases in detail. It will also conduct focused assessments of high-risk districts and municipal corporations, including vacancies at district, municipal and sub-district levels, availability of cold chain equipment, resource gaps and training requirements, he noted.
The state task force will review allocation and utilisation of funds for immunisation and ensure timely action by officers concerned based on reports from district and municipal task forces and state-level monitoring mechanisms, the official said.
It will also ensure active coordination and participation of other government departments in immunisation drives, while district and municipal task forces will carry out similar functions at their respective levels, the official added.
