Nellore: Union home minister Amit Shah dwelt at length on the transparency they brought in selecting talented people for Padma awards while addressing a public gathering on the occasion of the 20th anniversary celebrations of Swarna Bharat Trust (SBT) at Venkatachalam near Nellore city on Sunday.
Referring to the recently-held Padma awards ceremony, Shah said most of the parties when in power give Padma awards through recommendations, however, Prime Minister Narendra Modi honoured those who worked on the ground.
“A woman from Karnataka got Padma award and one Muslim man who performed the last rites of unclaimed dead bodies was awarded Padma Shri,” Amit Shah said. The home minister underlined the need for NGOs like Swarna Bharat Trust for the development of people in rural areas. Reminding that the SBT was the brainchild of Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu, who was also present in the programme, Shah lauded him for the initiative.
He said the service activities taken up by the SBT were highly appreciable and that was taken up with the inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi, Deen Dayal Upadyaya, Nanaji Deshmukh who strived hard for the development of the downtrodden.
He observed that the fruits of the activities of the trust had been giving hope to the downtrodden in their lives and praised the SBT for continuing skill development activities without getting any financial support from the government.
The Centre had been moving ahead on the lines of ‘Sab ka Saath, Sab ka Vikaas, Sab ka Viswas’ and the public had to come forward for the development of the society taking the SBT as an inspiration, Shah maintained.
He said the Vice President of India was well aware of issues being faced by people in rural areas because of his rural background and more than five decades of public life. Shah also mentioned the development activities introduced during Venkaiah Naidu’s tenure as union minister for rural development during NDA-1. The ideology of Naidu had been reflected in the service activities taken up by the trust, added the home minister.
Speaking on the occasion, Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu said parents had to encourage children towards service activities that helped develop society.
Shah visited the Soma Skill Development Centre at Akshara Vidyalaya and also paid floral tributes to Sardar Vallabhabhai Patel on the campus.
Trust members Kamineni Srinivas, Muppavarapu Foundation managing trustee Harshavardhan and others were present. Shah received a rousing reception when he arrived at Swarna Bharat Trust.
Nellore MP Adala Prabhakar Reddy, BJP state president Somu Veerraju, MLC Vakati Narayana Reddy, Sarvepalli legislator Kakani Govardhan Reddy, Nellore district collector K.V.N. Chakradhar Babu and SP Ch Vijaya Rao received the home minister.
