Call to follow ideals of Ambedkar

Kurnool: District Collector S Satyanarayana said that Dr B R Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian Constitution, has strived for the well-being of the downtrodden sections of the society.

“We all should feel proud of the Ambedkar and follow his footsteps,” he stated while addressing a meeting after garlanding the statue of Ambedkar, on the occasion of his 127th birth anniversary, along with Rajya Sabha member TG Venkatesh, MLA SV Mohan Reddy, MLC KE Prabhakar and others here on Saturday. The Collector said that Babasaheb had strived for social justice, women education and fought for the equality of Dalits on par with other communities. 

Taking inspiration from Ambedkar, the State government has been implementing several welfare schemes to SCs and STs and has disbursed Rs 54 crore through the SC Corporation during 2016-17, said the Collector. He further stated that the government has also allocated Rs 26.75 crore for the education of 155 Dalit students in corporate schools and colleges. Under Overseas Scheme, 18 SC students were given Rs 10 lakh each. He mentioned that Deputy Chief Minister KE Krishnamurthy is very keen on constructing a building in the name of Babu Jagjivan Ram. 

The government released Rs 100 crore for the development of SC and ST colonies under sub plans, he stated. Former MLC Sudhakar Babu, Ambedkar Utsav Samithi members and Dalit leaders celebrated the Babasaheb birthday by cutting the cake. The leaders also felicitated Principal Scientist Dr MB Dastagiri, who has pursued doctorate from the Cambridge University. Dastagiri, who hails from poor Dalit family is a native of Itikyal village in Kolimigundla mandal in Kurnool. 

The leaders also disbursed bank linkage amount of Rs 13.22 crore to women self-help groups. Joint Collector Rama Swamy, Deputy Director of Social Welfare Prasad Rao, DRDA Project Director Rama Krishna and other district-level officials participated in the programme. Srisailam MLA Budda Rajasekhara Reddy on Saturday paid tributes to Dr BR Ambedkar by garlanding his statue in Atmakuru. Later, he cut a cake along with the members of the Dalit groups.