The Hindu : National : A cheerful welcome to Pratibha

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Thursday, Jul 26, 2007
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A cheerful welcome to Pratibha

Staff Reporter

— Photo: PTI

New role: Chief Justice of India, K.G. Balakrishnan, administers the oath of office to President-elect Pratibha Patil in Parliament on Wednesday.

NEW DELHI: A string of ceremonial drills marked the ushering in of the 12th President on Wednesday.

In the afternoon, a senior military official knocked at the door of 9, South Avenue here, residence of Pratibha Patil, to escort her to the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Friends, relatives and admirers of “Pratibha tai” — as she is popularly called — lined up outside her residence and looked on as the Military Secretary to the President, Major General Vinod Chopra, arrived there to invite her and her husband Devisingh Shekhawat to the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Dressed in a white sari with green border, Ms. Patil, along with Mr. Shekhawat, was escorted to the waiting official car amid cheers and applause by onlookers, many of whom had come from her home State Maharashtra.

Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who was present on the occasion, greeted Ms. Patil on her victory in the Presidential election. He conveyed to her the “feelings of the people of Maharashtra” on her spectacular win. “It is a proud moment for the people of Maharashtra to have one among them in the highest office of the country.”

Then Ms. Patil was escorted amid tight security to the swearing-in ceremony held in the Central Hall of Parliament and it was followed by a 21-gun salute.

Special Correspondent reports:

Union Tourism Secretary Christy Leon Fernandez will be the secretary to Ms. Patil.

He replaces P. M. Nair, whose term was co-terminus with the term of the former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

Mr. Fernandez, who hails from Kerala, is a 1973 batch IAS officer from the Gujarat cadre.

“It will be a great honour to work with the new President. The job brings new challenges with it; it is a great job and a challenging one,” he told The Hindu on Wednesday before heading for the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

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