The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : `I have learnt a lot from interacting with people'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 21, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

`I have learnt a lot from interacting with people'

Staff Reporter

Chief Minister presents Devaraj Urs Award to Nisar Ahmed

Bangalore: Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Sunday unveiled a statue of D. Devaraj Urs in front of the Vidhana Soudha here, on the occasion of the former Chief Minister's 91st birth anniversary.

This is the second time that a statue of Devaraj Urs, hailed as a champion of the backward classes, is being installed at the Vidhana Soudha.

In 1993, a statue was installed and later removed after people and the legislators expressed unhappiness about the design.

Later at a function, Kannada poet K.S. Nisar Ahmed received the Devaraj Urs Award. Several students from the backward classes and minority communities received awards for scoring high marks in ten standard and second PU examinations. Wardens of hostels for backward classes and minority communities also received awards for their services.

Forty-three disabled persons were given financial assistance to the tune of Rs. 4.3 lakh.

Mr. Kumaraswamy said he had increased assistance for self-employment schemes for disabled persons from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 35,000.

If such schemes were properly utilised, people need not depend on others, he said.

Stating that he had learnt a lot from his interaction with the people, the Chief Minister reiterated that government officials should visit villages and get to know the problems of the people there. "There are people who are not getting even two square meals a day. The Government has come out with schemes to help such people," he said.

Balachandra Jarkholi, Social Welfare Minister, announced that from next year four divisional-level Devaraj Urs awards, each carrying a cash prize of Rs. 25,000, would be instituted.

B.S. Yediyurappa, Deputy Chief Minister, said that the Government was committed to fulfilling the dreams of Devaraj Urs.

Proof of it was that in the budget Rs. 2,000 crore had been set aside for social welfare programmes and Rs. 120 crore for providing hostel facility for minorities, he added.

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