Rayagada: Union Rail Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who reached Rayagada today morning, met the eminent social worker and Padma Shri Shanti Devi at her residence here.
He also mentioned that “Prime Minister Narendra Modi had specifically asked to meet her and seek her blessing”.
Minister for Communications, Electronics & Information Technology and Railways, Ashwini Vaishnaw, on Friday visited Rayagada district under the BJP’s ‘Jan Ashirwad Yatra’ involving newly-inducted Union Cabinet ministers.
Reportedly, the newly-inducted Cabinet ministers are taking out the Yatra for three days from August 19-21.
Shanti Devi, a grassroot level social worker from Odisha who has been serving humanity for the last seven decades, is one of the several Padma Shri Awardees of 2021.
It is her indomitable spirit to offer every minute of her life for social works that has earned her the moniker ‘Koraputia Gandhi’ (Koraput’s Gandhi)
Shanti Devi, who was born on April 18, 1934, leads a voluntary body called Seva Samaj with an aim to rehabilitate the orphans and destitute children and provide them education and vocational training. She has set up an Ashram at Gunpur for this purpose.
