Chief Minister Shri Narendra Modi while inaugurating a girls’ hostel in Memnagar area here on Saturday said spending money on educating girls was more important than giving it away for marrying them off. He further said the inmates should take up the work of teaching slum children at least once in a week.

Inaugurating the five-story building of Shrimati Vijayaben Maganbhai Nagjibhai Bhagat Girls Hostel built by Saurashtra Patel Kelavni Mandal, Shri Narendra Modi said the strength of the Gujarati community lay more in giving donations than paying taxes. He said the girls’ hostels would be instrumental in building the future of the coming generations. Making specific mention of the Patel community, he said Patels had brought about a revolution in their community through education and inducting women in the community trusts.

State Revenue Minister Shrimati Anandiben Patel said the situation had changed a lot now from the days when there were no options after passing Class XII. 'Now, we have more options with the opening of several universities like forensic, petroleum and others,' she said. The Minister said a couple of years ago, some 70,000 transactions were concluded with women ownership under stamp duty laws but two years later this has risen to 4.7 lakh transactions.