CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy fetes Indo-Pak war hero Venugopal

Tirupati: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy visited Major Gen (Retd) C Venugopal here on Thursday evening and felicitated him. On the occasion of celebrating 'Swarnim Vijay Varsh', the golden jubilee of Indo-Pak war 1971, the Chief Minister reached here to participate in the programmes. From the airport, he and other officials reached the 'White House', the residence of C Venugopal in Chennareddy Colony in the city.

The 95-year-old Venugopal is a native of Tirupati and was the recipient of Param Vishisht Seva Medal (PVSM) and Maha Veer Chakra (MVC) and played an active role in the 1971 war. The Indo-Pak War victory flame has been brought to his residence and handed over to him by the Chief Minister before taking it back to the police parade grounds. Jagan was seen asking Venugopal about his war memories.

From there, the Chief Minister proceeded to police parade grounds where the main event will be held. Before the main event, he watched the screening of 1971 war movies and audio visual clip of 1971 war along with other dignitaries. Indian Army symphony band was also played with various medleys. After placing the victory flame on stage and saluting to it, he felicitated the family members of Sanyasi Naidu of Visakhapatnam and KJ Christopher of Kakinada.

Earlier, he was received at the airport by Dy Chief Minister K Narayana Swamy, minister Peddireddi Ramachandra Reddy, TTD chairman Y V Subba Reddy, MLAs including Bhumana Karunakar Reddy, B Madhusudan Reddy, RK Roja, Chevireddy Bhaskar Reddy, MPs N Reddeppa and P Mithun Reddy.

TTD EO KS Jawahar Reddy, collector M Hari Narayanan, DIG Kranthi Rana Tata, Chittoor SP Senthil Kumar, Tirupati Urban SP N Venkata Appala Naidu and other officials were also present. District In-charge minister M Goutham Reddy and DGP Gautham Sawang accompanied the Chief Minister from Gannavaram in the special aircraft.