Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday interacted with devotees from Delhi slated to go on pilgrimages to Golden temple-Anandpur Sahib corridor and Vaishno Devi under the Mukhyamntri Tirth Yatra Yojana, a press release by the office of the Chief Minister read.
"To all the elderly citizens of Delhi, I want to say, this son of yours will send you on at least one Tirth Yatra in your lifetime. Your government has done a lot of development work over the last four-and-a-half years, but sending our senior citizens on a Tirth Yatra is one of the closest things to my heart," Kejriwal said at the meeting.
The meeting between Kejriwal and devotees took place at the Delhi Secretariat Auditorium.
Deputy CM Msh Sisodia and ministers Kailash Gehlot, Rajendra Pal Gautam with Tirtha Yatra Committee President Kamal Bansal were also present in the meeting.
One batch of pilgrims from the state is scheduled to go on the Golden Temple-Wagah Border-Anandpur Sahib corridor on July 12 while the second batch is scheduled to go on Vaishno Devi-Jammu corridor on July 20.
He announced today that he and Sisodia, along with their families will join the Tirth Yatra to Vaishno Devi on July 20.
Kejriwal said he had the opportunity to undertake a divine good deed and added that people of Delhi too had been repaying their debt to the elders as it was their tax which was funding their pilgrimage.
"It is said that a child can never repay his parents' debt, but if he is able to send them on a Tirth yatra, a part of the debt is cleared. Even the people of Delhi are repaying their debt to the elderly because their tax is funding your pilgrimage," he said.
"We also hope to get a small number of blessings out of doing this deed. The opposition is trying to politicise even this issue. But I want to tell them, I will continue spending money on our elderly," he added.
Kejriwal also talked about expanding the scheme to pilgrimage sites in the southern part of India as well. "The government is considering expanding the Tirth Yatra scheme for South Indian corridors as well from next year," he said.
( With inputs from ANI )