HRD Minister Smriti Irani meets Gujarat CM Anandiben Patel, discusses education programmes

Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani on Friday met Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel and discussed various education programmes, especially those focusing on girls, launched by the state government.

Irani also took part in "Shala Praveshotsav" (school enrolment festival), an annual event organised by the state government. Patel inaugurated the three-day fest on Thursday.

"Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani came today to take part in Shala Praveshotsav - an auspicious event for primary education in Gujarat," an official release said in Gandhinagar.

Irani met Patel in the morning and discussed the success of the state government's different education programmes for girls, it said.

"Met Smt AnandiBen Patel, Hon CM Gujarat at Gandhinagar today," Irani tweeted while sharing her picture with the first woman Chief Minister of Gujarat. Irani, who is a Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat, also took part in another government event 'Kanya Kelavani Yatra' (an event to encourage girls' education). She enrolled a group of girls in a primary school in Kudasan village near here.

"Sharing photographs of Shala Praveshotsav and Kanya Kelavani Mahotsav at Primary School, Kudasan, Gandhinagar," she tweeted while sharing some of her photos with school kids. Irani, who visited Gujarat for the first time after becoming the Union Minister last month, later inaugurated a school in Kudasan.

The 'Praveshotsav' initiative was started 12-years ago by then Chief Minister Narendra Modi and is celebrated every year across the state to increase school enrolment in government primary schools.