Gujarat school principal & volunteers collect 12,000 rakhis for Jawans serving at border

Ahead of the festive occassion of Raksha Bandhan, a school Principal from Gujarat's Vadodara is doing the noble deed of collecting rakhis from those willing to send it the soldiers deployed on the borders. Sanjay Bachhav began collecting rakhis for Jawans in 2015 with 75 rakhis. This year, he could not collect rakhis from students as the schools were closed due to COVID-19 pandemic. 

Himali Patel, a volunteer said that they have received over 12,000 rakhis. She said many NRIs have also sent them rakhis through their proxies in the country. They plan to pack these rakhis in Tricolour boxes and send it to soldiers posted in Siachen, Galwan valley and Kargil.

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'Swadeshi rakhi'

In another initiative, BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi along with Delhi BJP president launched 'Swadeshi Rakhi' to promote local women workers and PM's 'Make in India' initiative. The MP from New Delhi constituency said that this initiative will help to create jobs in this time of the pandemic.

"Raksha Bandhan is a festival of sisters and this initiative is for the sisters and also by the sisters. If we talk about the development of our country, it is very important that we encourage products made in our country and people from our country buy Swadeshi products,"  Meenakshi Lekhi said. 

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"Today, China does a business of Rs. 400 crore on the festival of Raksha Bandhan. If we, the people of India, pledge to buy Rakhi made by our sisters, it will create numerous opportunities as well as support for these worker. In these 15 days, if we all support these women workers we can help the nation's economy as well as the financial security of these workers," added Lekhi.

Delhi traders' body, Confederation of All India Traders Association has also launched the "Hindustani Rakhi" campaign to promote Indian made Rakhis and boycott Chinese Rakhi. National secretary-general of CAIT Praveen Khandelwal in a video message said that people across the nation must boycott Chinese Rakhi and Chinese products used to make Rakhi. 

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