Work unitedly to realise Abdul Kalam’s dream of developed India: Modi

Agencies
July 27, 2017

Rameswaram, Jul 27: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday urged the people to work together to fulfil former president A P J Abdul Kalam’s dream of seeing a developed India by 2022 when it celebrates its 75th Independence Day. “There are 125 crore people and if each one takes one step, then the country would be 125 crore steps ahead,” he told a public meeting near this island, the home town of the late ‘Missile Man’, after inaugurating his national memorial.narendra

Various schemes launched by central government whether it was “Stand up India or Start up India, ‘Amrut’ cities or smart cities or Clean India projects would go a long way in realising Kalam’s dream of “developed India”, he said. In a reference to epic ‘Ramayana’, Modi said even a small squirrel had helped Lord Ram in constructing the ‘Ramasethu’ (bridge) for him to cross over to Sri Lanka.

“If people are committed like that squirrel, the country can scale great heights,” Modi said addressing a gathering at Mandapam, about 15 kms from Rameswaram. He urged the youth and pilgrims visiting this holy town to include a visit to Kalam’s memorial, designed and built by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) with which the former president was associated with for a long time.

Modi heaped praise on labourers involved in the construction of the memorial, saying they had not charged for the extra two hours they had put in every day. After sweating it out from 8 AM to 5 PM, they would later take a break for one hour and put in two additional man hours. They had refused payment for these extra two hours, saying it was their way of contributing towards the memory of Kalam, Modi said, adding this deserved a standing ovation.

The audience was immediately on its feet applauding the the labourers, architects and workers who had toiled in raising the structure. Paying rich tributes to Kalam, whose second death anniversary was observed, Modi said the former president continues to inspire crores of countrymen. “People from every corner of the country come here (mostly on pilgrimage). I urge them, the tour operators and youth — whenever you come here, add to your programme a visit to this memorial,” Modi said.

The Prime Minister pointed out that Kalam loved the youths and the students very much, and it was for their benefit that Stand Up and Start Up schemes had been launched. The Mudra bank loan scheme had been launched to provide loans for the youths without any guarantee and it had benefited over eight crore people, including one crore from Tamil Nadu, he said.
A new India and a new Tamil Nadu could be developed with the cooperation of the central and state governments, he said. Ten cities in the state had been chosen for the smart city project and 33 towns for development under the AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) scheme, he said.
The central government had allocated Rs.900 crore for the Smart City and Rs.4,700 crore for the AMRUT scheme, he said the latter would ensure availability of better power, water, sanitation and other essential infrastructure. The Prime Minister hoped that the ‘Sagar Mala’ scheme, linking the coastal areas spreading through the country’s 7,500 km coastal line, would bring more investments and benefit people in a big way.

Announcing the launch of deep sea fishing to Rameswaram fishermen under hte Blue Revolution scheme, for which Rs 1,500 crore had been allocated, he said it would help fishermen to get better revenue and at the same time overcome problems relating to the fishing in the Palk Strait. The Prime Minister also flagged off a weekly train to Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh from Rameswaram.

In order to help the people worship at Ramar Sethu, the mythical bridge believed to have been built by Lord Rama, the Rameswaram-Dhanushkodi road which was destroyed in the devastating cyclone decades ago had been rebuilt. Modi also unveiled synopsis of Green Rameswaram scheme, a pet project of late Kalam, presented by the local Vivekananda Kendra.

He recalled that it was in Rameswaram that Swami Vivekananda placed his first step when he returned from America in 1897. Earlier, after inaugurating the memorial, Modi paid floral tributes to Kalam at his ‘samadhi’. Evincing keen interest in the features of the memorial, which has on display replicas of rockets and missiles on which the late scientist had worked, the Prime Minister viewed it for about 15 minutes.

It has been built at a cost of Rs 15 crore on land alloted by the Tamil Nadu government at Kalam’s village Peikarambu. On the occasion, the Prime Minister also unveiled a wooden statue of Kalam playing the ‘veena’. The former president was adept at playing the musical instrument. The memorial also has about 900 paintings and 200 rare photographs of the late scientist, who held the office of the president from 2002 to 2007.

Modi was accompanied by Tamil Nadu Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao, Chief Minister K Palaniswami, Union ministers Pon Radhakrishnan, Nirmala Sitharaman and NDA’s vice presidential nominee M Venakaiah Naidu. The prime minister earlier unfurled the national flag at the entrance of the memorial. Later, he interacted with family members of Kalam.

Modi was seen affectionately holding the hands of Kalam’s elder brother A P J Mohamed Muthumeeran Maraikaya.

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Raj
 - 
Friday, 28 Jul 2017

Congrats Sir. May you achieve many more feats in your career. Good luck

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News Network
May 24,2020

New Delhi, May 24: Overwhelmed by the donations that poured in from the society for his help, Phool Mia, the fruit seller in north Delhi's Jagatpuri area whose mangoes were looted by the ordinary people, said that those who helped him have made his "Eid" and have shown that "humanity is still alive".

Video footage that went viral on social media, shows that scores of passers-by looted the unattended crates of mangoes of a fruit seller after a fight broke out in the neighbourhood. The incident took place on Wednesday.

"My stock of mangoes worth Rs 30,000 was kept there. Some persons were fighting with each other fearing which I left the place to avoid any sort of altercation. When I returned, I saw that they were looting the mangoes kept there. There were 50-100 people who were involved in this act," Phool Mia, narrated the ordeal.

"A video got viral about the incident after which people donated to me on a portal. They empathised with me when I was ruined. I thank the media and all those people who have donated from the bottom of my heart as they made my Eid. Now, I would be able to celebrate Eid with my children. This shows humanity is still alive," he added.

However, four people have been arrested on the basis of video footage, Delhi Police said.

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News Network
March 2,2020

New Delhi, Mar 2: As communal violence spiked in north-east Delhi earlier this week, Hindu, Muslim and Sikh residents of a colony came together and stood guard against frenzied mobs which ran riot in nearby areas vandalising homes, shops and torching cars.

They have not let their guard down even as the situation is limping back to normalcy following four days of violence that has claimed at least 42 lives and left over 200 injured.

The B-Block colony in Yamuna Vihar has a Hindu-dominated Bahjanpura on one side and Muslim populated Ghonda on the other.

People from all faiths in the locality sit outside their homes at night and deal with any suspected outsider, Arib, a dentist in his 30s, said.

"It is the sloganeering by mobs that causes panic in the dead of night. Such slogans are from both sides and we hear groups of people moving forward towards our area.

"This is where we let the Muslim locals deal with Muslim groups and Hindu residents deal with Hindu groups coming from outside," he said.

Businessmen, doctors and people working at government offices stuck together as violence reached its crest on Monday and Tuesday, and have been guarding the locality round the clock.

Earlier, the locals had claimed inadequate police deployment in the area, but were satisfied as patrolling by security personnel increased in the last two days.

Charanjeet Singh, a Sikh who owns a transport firm, said residents have ensured that not too many people gather to guard the colony at night. It has been decided not use sticks or rods, an idea which seems to have worked in maintaining peace, he said.

"I was 10 years old when we came to this locality from Uttar Pradesh's Meerut in 1982. There were riots in 1984 and tension in 2002, but even then our area remained peaceful. We have always been united and that is the way we have helped each other," Singh, who is now in his 50s, told PTI.

Faisal, a businessman in his 30s, said after two days of major violence, there was palpable tension in the area. "Nobody could sleep in the neighbourhood even on Wednesday and Thursday when the situation was brought under control," he said.

Faisal said around 4 am on Wednesday, three to four miscreants had torched a car, but were chased away by vigilant residents. They raised an alarm and others gathered, saving other vehicles parked nearby from being damaged, he added.

On the idea of not keeping sticks while guarding B-Block, Singh said, "Violence begets violence, crowd begets crowd. We thought if somebody would see sticks or rods in our hands from a distance and large crowds standing guard, it is likely they would want to come prepared. This could fuel violence."

"Now, if there is some young man returning late in the night, we identify if he belongs to our area. If not, we normally inform him about the situation and guide him to his destination, if required," he added.

Seventy-year-old V K Sharma said people in his colony never had any trouble with each other, as he blamed "outside elements" for the violence in north-east Delhi.

"Some people have some problem with symbols. If they find a particular religion's symbol on a shop, home or a car, they vandalise it.

"This is on both sides, Hindus as well as Muslims. But not all people in all religion are like that. There are good people who outnumber these handful people involved in violence," he said.

The violence happened for two days but it would take months for fear to subside, Sharma said, as he took out his two granddaughters, aged nine and two, out for ice cream.

"I cannot reduce the tension outside my home, but at least I can make these kids feel good by reducing their craving for ice cream,” he added.

Colony resident Shiv Kumar, a property consultant, and Wasim, a government official, said they too were members of this voluntary guards' team of the colony which stays up at night to fend off miscreants.

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Agencies
January 8,2020

New Delhi, Jan 8: Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) President Aishe Ghosh has filed a complaint over the violence that took place at the varsity campus on Sunday.

"I am filing this complaint for the incident in which a mob conspired and acted with common intention to assault, intimidate and attempt to murder me, and request you to register an FIR and apprehend culprits at the earliest," the complaint read.

She said that on January 5, in the afternoon, she received information from students in the campus that some students affiliated to ABVP along with other unidentified men and women had gathered with weapons like rods, sledgehammers and lathis near Ganga Bus Stop.

"I along with Nikhil Mathew (MA Labour Studies) who was also present there, were surrounded by a group of persons of that mob most of whom were wearing masks. The mob of 20-30 persons dragged me behind a car standing near the 24*7 and surrounded me and despite my pleading did not let me go and attacked me with rods while I had fallen down. I remember that one of the people was of medium height wearing a brownish-red sweatshirt with UCLA written on it. I saw his face as he was facing me and did not have a mask on and can identify him if I see him," Ghosh wrote in her complaint.

"I was attacked by the above-mentioned persons collectively and was hit on the head multiple times with iron rods. I fell to the ground and my head started bleeding, and some of them kicked me and hit me with the rod on my hand and rest of the body including my head, chest and back."

"I am attaching with this complaint a copy of the MLC which details my injuries. Nikhil Mathew tried to save me but was also hit with an iron hammer and other weapons on his head and arms. The intention of the group of men and their acts was definitely to murder me and other persons associated with me," she said.

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