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Journalism of Courage
Amreli, the native district of Dr Jivraj Mehta, personal doctor to Mahatma Gandhi, was a bastion of Congress for the first 40 years post Independent. Mehta became the first chief minister of Gujarat when a new state was carved out in 1960 by merging Saurashtra, Kutch and parts of Bombay. Gandhian Jayaben Shah had won from this constituency in 1957, 1962 and 1967. The constituency got its current name in 1962 and Mehta was elected MP from Amreli in 1971. A non-Congress leader won from this seat for the first time in 1989 when Manu Kotadiya of Janata Dal, which had a poll alliance with the BJP, defeated Congress’ two-time sitting MP Navinchandra Ravani. But Kotadiya later joined Congress and contested the 1991 Lok Sabha poll. He was defeated by Dilip Sanghani, then a rising face of BJP. Sanghani, the current chairman of IFFCO, won the subsequent polls in 1996, 1998 and 1999. However, he was defeated by Congress’ Virji Thummar in 2004. This remains the only Congress victory in the last 34 years, as Kachhadiya defeated Thummar in 2009, Thummar’s wife Neela in 2014 and Congress’ Paresh Dhanani in 2019. All who have won from Amreli since 1989 belong to the Patidar community, who dominate this seat numerically.
A farmer, Kachhadiya was president of Amreli district panchayat when the BJP fielded him from Amreli for the first time in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. He retained the seat in 2014 and also managed a victory in the 2019 election, which was conducted in the aftermath of Patidar quota stir and Congress had control over five out of seven Assembly segments in his constituency. The 69-year-old leader says his biggest achievements have been getting Amreli a broadgauge railway line, long-distance trains, a Kendriya Vidyalaya, three national highways, an FM radio station and a passport service centre, among others, to Amreli. He was sentenced to three years in jail by a trial court in Amreli in 2016 in a case of assault of a doctor but escaped disqualification as MP as his conviction was stayed by the Supreme Court.
On July 26, 2019, he introduced Compulsory Teaching of Disaster Management Education in Educational Institutions Bill-2019, Introduction of the Prohibition of Defecation in Open Places Bill-2019, Introduction of the Bureau of Accountability Bill-2019 and Introduction of the Compulsory Teaching of Psychology in Educational Institutions Bill-2019.
June 21, 2019: Whether any national policy has been formulated to take action against hospitals and doctors involved in cases of negligence and criminal activities; details of complaints received against hospitals regarding their involvement in kidney rackets during the last five years and action taken on such complaints.
February 7, 2024: Whether the government has formulated any strategy to tackle the menace of deepfakes and corrective measures taken/being taken.
December 31, 2023: Whether the government proposes to adopt any mechanism to save time of passengers during security check at airports and introduce biometric ID checking system at airports.
December 11, 2023: Total number of Ramsar sites in the country, whether there is a significant increase in such sites since 2015 and steps taken for better preservation and protection of these sites.
December 8, 2023: Whether the government is aware of incidences of tobacco consumption by schoolchildren as young as 10 years old, as reported in the Global Youth Survey Report; steps taken/proposed to protect such children.
April 3, 2023: Complaints received in Gujarat against industrial establishments during the last three years for polluting rivers and groundwater; what action has been taken against such units.
Member of Lok Sabha’s committee on privileges in 2019 and 2020; member of committee on petroleum and natural gas in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.
Slow progress in doubling of railway tracks; need to set up a Kendriya Vidyalaya in Amreli; weak network of BSNL for cellphone users in his district, need to run long-distance trains from Amreli; need to establish a mechanism to monitor private coaching classes and need to set up FM radio stations in small towns, among others.
