Page 213 - SocialHarmony

Poor Welfare Fair: Service to Humanity 217

about all this. When I saw those data, I too was surprised. It
was because of the reason that I used to sum up all those things
at 15,000 crores rupees, but now the data revealed that about
26,000 crores rupees had been disbursed in the poor welfare
fairs. This simply meant that when the concept of the poor
welfare fairs was propagated, different departments felt that
they too could contribute in them; that was, a type of competition
took root among different departments. Every department
decided to do better than the other departments. Even the tehsils
competed with one another. If one tehsil assisted 1000 people,
the other vowed to assist 1200 people. The districts too competed
in this. Surendranagar is a large district, if it does so much, then
we would do this much. If Dang district does this much, we
would do so much. Every district administration set down in
the competition how it could do better in the poor people’s
welfare.

The poor welfare fair has created a competitive
environment for service. When one district compares itself with
another in order to assist a larger number of people and
implements a large number of schemes, nothing could be like
this fine situation. Earlier, the officials ran about six days a week,
but now they have started to work seven days a week in order
to make the concept of poor welfare fairs a success. Sometimes
they returned home late at night; sometimes they chose to stay
at the place to work. The entire administration set a great
example by holding the people’s programme in the form of the
poor welfare fairs.

You have undergone an experience of over sixty years: has
any government ever asked you about your pleasure and
sorrow? Even a single individual must not have experienced
this. You must be looking forward to such a situation. No one
seems to have bothered about you, and you have just become
habituated of it. You have come to think that nothing can be
done whether someone enquires of you or not. You must have
heard several family members speak in the poor welfare fairs.
You must have got an opportunity to listen to the beneficiaries
here. These beneficiaries say that a wonderful environment has