President Ramnath Kovind urges youth, intellectuals to give back to society

Nellore: President Ramnath Kovind who attended 18th anniversary celebrations of Swarna Bharat Trust at Venkatachalam on Friday said that one should be ready to give back to the needy and underprivileged people. He said he was very much impressed by the theme of Vandemataram and Namami Gange ballets coupled with Yoga postures performed by the students of IIIT-Nuzvid.

He appealed to the intellectuals, students, scientists, technologists and other people from various walks of life to practice the culture of “giving back to the society.” He lauded services of Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu and the trust members for their relentless efforts to serve the needy. He said Venkaiah Naidu is a sensitive human being who responds to the problems of people. 

He recalled that Gandhiji had preached to serve the needy and develop villages basing on the principle of Gram Swaraj. The President said that Swachh Bharat programme has been designed paying a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi. He said the Swarna Bharat Trust is doing the same to the society which is highly appreciable. The President along with the First Lady participated in the celebrations.

He flew down in a special IAF helicopter from Chennai to the police parade grounds in Nellore where Governor E S L Narasimhan, Ministers P Narayana, N Amaranatha Reddy, Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy, District Collector R Mutyala Raju and others received him and the First Lady.

Ramnath Kovind visited Akshara Vidyalaya run by the Trust and interacted with the students and attended a formal programme organised at the Trust premises in connection with the anniversary.

He spoke in Telugu initially thus attracting the attention of a large number of people and dignitaries. Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu said that it was his desire right from his childhood to serve the society and hence he had set up the trust for carrying out service activities.

Empowering women, skill upgradation through vocational training for better employment opportunities and training to the farmers on better practices of cultivation and others have been continued for the last 18 years, he pointed out.

He said the best achievement of his life is setting up Swarna Bharat Trust with an aim to improve conditions of rural masses by providing education, health care, technical knowhow and thereby enabling them to secure self-employment.

He said they had invited President Ram Nath Kovind to the 18th anniversary celebrations of the Trust to explain to the youth how a common man can become the President of the country with sincerity, dedication and discipline in life.

Governor E S L Narasimhan, First Lady Savitha Kovind, Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu’s wife Usha, Ministers C Adinarayana Reddy, S Chandramohan Reddy, Trust chairman K Vishnu Raju, Managing Trustee I Deepa Venkat and others were present. Earlier, the President along with his wife visited residence of Venkaiah Naidu in Nellore city and had breakfast there.