Indian Railways is gearing up to launch special Amrit Kalash trains and make other arrangements to help around 20,000 volunteers, who will be travelling to Delhi from across the country with soil from their villages under the second phase of the government’s Meri Maati Mera Desh campaign on October 29.
Union culture secretary Govind Mohan wrote to Railway Board chairperson Jaya Varma Sinha last week that each volunteer would be carrying the soil in a vessel called ‘Amrit Kalash‘ to contribute to the Amrit Vatika and Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav memorial in New Delhi. “Desh ki mitti is being collected from each and every household as a mark of respect to the earth and people who sacrificed for the country,” states the letter, accessed by INDIA TODAY. “Where mitti is not available, people can contribute a grain of rice. This mitti would be utilised in the Amrit Vatika being created in the national capital.”
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The letter states that the vatika (garden) and the memorial will be a lasting legacy and a permanent reminder of the “spirit of valour and sacrifice of our veers (bravehearts) who made our freedom and progress a reality”.
The railways, on October 16, issued instructions to its 17 zones to create special Amrit Kalash trains from each state capital to bring the volunteers to Delhi by October 29. Since each state contingent would be bringing multiple kalash (vessel), the security apparatus at stations has also been instructed to ensure smooth movement.
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Each train is to be flagged off with fanfare in the presence of local VIPs and with a specially created ‘Mitti Anthem’. The volunteers would be staying in the Delhi-Gurugram border areas of the National Capital Region, so stations nearest to those points are being earmarked for these trains.
Anticipating a big rush, the railway ministry has instructed that 20 per cent more seating space than the numbers projected may be arranged in the trains. The shortest possible routes are also being chalked out for faster movements.
The mega convergence is meant for the cultural programme in New Delhi on October 31.
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The railways is also making arrangements to take the volunteers back from November 1. Instructions have gone out from the ministry to appoint nodal officers in each state to coordinate with the local administrations. The zonal railways are also to give wide publicity to the list of trains and their routes and halts.
“Wherever feasible, we have been asked for halting the trains in big cities and towns en route for the volunteers’ interactions with local MPs, VIPs, etc,” said a senior railway official.
In the first phase of the Meri Mitti Mera Desh campaign, over 200,000 plaques carrying the names of bravehearts in villages and towns had been built, besides planting of around 20 million saplings.
The official Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, to commemorate 75 years of India’s independence, started on March 12, 2021. With a 75-week countdown to the 75th anniversary of India’s independence, it ended on August 15, 2023.
