Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah inaugurated and laid foundation stones for 84 development works worth Rs. 3,400 million (mn) at Sonipur in the Kalol and Gandhinagar North Assembly constituencies on 28 May 2026, with the Chief Minister in attendance. The ceremony followed a joint tree plantation drive and the projects covered GUDA, Panchayat and Roads and Buildings schemes. Railway underbridge works were also included among the initiatives.

The works were supported by government departments and corporate social responsibility funds from private institutions and included lake beautification and rural library projects. Rural libraries will be linked with the Gandhinagar library network and a target has been set to equip every village in Gandhinagar with a library, garden and recreational spaces by 2029. Advanced reading libraries were inaugurated in three villages to promote reading habits.

The minister described the initiatives as part of an intensified drive to make villages self reliant and to advance education, healthcare, sanitation and drinking water facilities. He said projects totalling nearly Rs. 12,000 million (mn) were undertaken over the past 10 days, reflecting coordinated State and Central effort alongside private support. He announced a Demographic Change Commission to study artificial demographic changes and indicated that legislative measures may be considered on its recommendations.

He highlighted border security measures, saying fencing work along the Bangladesh border is progressing and that the government is committed to identifying and deporting foreign infiltrators while offering assistance to those who leave voluntarily, with detention centres established. He invoked the Gujarat development model as having gained national acceptance and linked the measures to the Prime Minister's vision for holistic village development. The Chief Minister said the state will plant 10 mn trees, has made a budgetary provision of Rs. 1,000 million (mn) for the Namo Central Library in Gandhinagar and has approved 135 taluka libraries and new health sub centres to improve rural services, with officials and citizens attending and ministers urging public participation in the development drive.