Centre plans year-long celebrations for Hyderabad Liberation

HYDERABAD: Union culture minister G. Kishan Reddy said that Hyderabad Liberation Day would be on the lines of Independence Day on August 15 and Republic Day on January 26.

The celebrations would go on for a full year with the help of the Centre, till September 17, 2023, he said. Maharashtra and Karnataka celebrate September 17 as Mukti Diwas, whereas in Nizam’s capital of Hyderabad, no celebrations had been conducted so far.

Speaking to reporters here at Parade Ground on Friday, where he inspected the venue for the meeting to be addressed by Union minister Amit Shah on Saturday, Kishan Reddy said that around 1,300 artists from Telangana, Maharashtra and Karnataka will perform cultural programmes on Saturday at Parade Ground, he said.

Kishan Reddy said that the Centre was celebrating Azadi ka Amrut Mahotsav top mark the diamond jubilee celebrations of independence. Unsung heroes of freedom struggle brought to the fore during the celebrations and Hyderabad Liberation Day is also taken up, he explained. The Centre had celebrated the birth anniversaries of the revolutionary Alluri Sitarama Raju and the designer of the National Flag Pingali Venkayya, Kisha Reddy said.

He said, “We have sent invitations to Telangana, Maharashtra and Karnataka Chief Ministers to participate in the Liberation Day celebrations in Hyderabad.” he said. The Union ministry of culture would be conducting the year-long celebrations.

Texhibition set up at the Parade Ground to mark the occasion features the Veyyi Urula Marri, which refers to a banyan tree in Nirmal town where a tribal king, Ramji Gond and his thousand soldiers were hanged by the British after they rebelled in 1860.

Union minister Amit Shah had addressed a public meeting at the site of the hanging on September 17 last year and demanded that the day be officially celebrated as Hyderabad Liberation day, which came to fruition this year.