Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday conferred the Maharashtra Bhushan Award 2022 to spiritual leader and social activist Dattatreya Narayan alias Appasaheb Dharmadhikari at Kharghar in Navi Mumbai. Aside from Amit Shah, state Chief Minister Eknath Shinde was also present at the event. Dharmadhikari has a massive following in the state due to his tree plantation drives, blood donation, and medical camps as well as de-addiction work in tribal areas.
The senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Shah arrived in Mumbai on Saturday evening on a two-day visit to Maharashtra.
Elaborate arrangements were made for the Maharashtra Bhushan award ceremony at the sprawling Corporate Park in Kharghar for a crowd of about 15 to 20 lakh coming from different places like Raigad, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Pune, Dhule, Jalgaon, Nashik, Mumbai and Thane, on private vehicles, state transport buses and trains.
The state government in an official release earlier said 250 water tankers and 2,100 taps were installed at the venue, along with 69 ambulances, 350 doctors, 100 nurses, 32 mobile toilets, 4,200 portable toilets, and 9,000 temporary toilets.
The state transport department banned heavy vehicles like dumpers, trucks, tankers, and multi-axle 16-tonne-plus trailers on the Kharghar to Insuli stretch of Mumbai Goa highway number 66, the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, the Mumbai-Pune old highway and the Ahmedabad-Mumbai highway on Saturday and Sunday.
The Maharashtra Bhushan Award was instituted when the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance came to power in 1995.
It was initially given to personalities in the fields of literature, sports, and science, before being expanded to include those from social work, journalism, public administration, and health services.
After the award ceremony, Shah will fly to Goa where he will chair a meeting with BJP functionaries to discuss organisational issues, and then address a public gathering in Farmagudi town, 30 km from Panaji, to kickstart the party's campaign in the coastal state for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.