Youth of Alwar in Rajasthan are set to develop “six-packs” like Shahrukh Khan or Ritik Roshan – if Union Minister of state for home Jitendra Singh and Congress MP succeeds in his plan to set up multi-exercise gymnasium in 333 Panchayats of his Alwar Constituency in Rajasthan.
The six-station gyms with a room of 12x18 feet in each Panaychat in Alwar will attract young men and provide road-map for a disciplined-healthy life.
“ I have spent one and half years of MPLAD funds to launch the scheme. It will be completed in six to seven months”, the young minister of state for home, a scion of Alwar royal family, tells Deccan Herald. The gyms will be run by Nehru Yuvak Kendras.
“My own children are glued to television and internet,” he says, underlining the importance of outdoor activities. By setting up gyms, the MP intends to send a message to rural youth in Alwar that “a healthy body has a healthy mind”.
Binding rural youth to an exercise-regime could be a novel ideal, considering that in parts of neighbouring Punjab drugs have played havoc with young bodies rendering them unfit for even simple physical test for police recruitment.
The youthful minister, known to be a key member of the inner-circle of Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi, has provided more “muscle” to his region by having got the Central government to sanction training centres at Alwar for the Intelligence Bureau, BSF, CRPF and Indo-Tibetan Border Police, at a cost of Rs 500 crore.
Moreover, 800 acres of land has also been earmarked for headquarters of the Special Protection Group in Tijara, a town in Alwar.
To a query on how he managed all these key projects in his area, Singh points to heavy presence of Army in Alwar due to its geographical location.
“It is strategically located being close to National Capital Region of Delhi, UP and Haryana. Now, in fact, it is really converted into a ‘Singh Dwar’ (Lion’s Gate/Den)”, he says. Some out of the box thinking has helped bring parts of the backward area in tune with modern times.
New role for women
Rural women in his constituency have been given encouragement to move out of the kitchen, and take up professions like driving - an exclusive profession even in big cities. Women in Alwar drive automobilies, connecting one village to another. The minister is “the driving force” behind the idea to expand “women-power” by providing “almost interest-free loans” for buying small four-wheelers.
Literacy is another instrument for empowering women in Alwar, Singh says. Around 70 to 80 per cent of people attending adult education classes in Alwar are women, he claims.
To cap it all, the Finance Minister has recently chosen Alwar for a pilot project for providing “direct cash subsidy” on LPG cylinders and kerosene. The cash-subsidy would be deposited into the bank accounts of the ration card holders in Alwar district.
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