HYDERABAD: Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao on Monday unveiled the 26-foot bronze statue of former prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao to mark the conclusion of his birth centenary celebrations organised by the state government.
The statue has been installed on a rotary leading to P.V. Narasimha Rao Marg, formerly called the Necklace Road, adjacent to Hussainsagar.
Later, the Governor opened the renamed road to traffic and released eight books, including four penned by the former PM. Dignitaries from various fields attended the programme.
Addressing the gathering, the Chief Minister hailed Narasimha Rao as a 'reformist' and said he had left an indelible mark in every field he was associated with, both at state-level and national-level. "When he was made Prime Minister heading a minority government, he took it up as a challenge and successfully completed a full five-year tenure," Chandrashekar Rao said.
The CM stated that due to reforms introduced by Narasimha Rao, the country could come out of the economic crisis which contributed to steady inflow of investments into the country providing vast employment opportunities for all sections.
He recalled the land reforms introduced by him in the United Andhra Pradesh which set an example to other states. “He donated 800 acres of land owned by his family during land reforms introduced by him and led from the front," said the Chief Minister.
Chandrashekar Rao hailed the former PM as the architect of gurukuls and Navodaya schools in the country which he had set up as education minister in AP. These were later adopted by other states, he said and added that there was a need to follow the ideologies of the former PM. "Politicians and administrators need to be dynamic for ensuring welfare and development" remarked the CM.
He announced that the state government had approved the proposal of setting up PV Vidhya Peetham in Kakatiya University. He thanked the Mahbubnagar-Hyderabad-Ranga Reddy Graduate MLC constituency voters for electing the former PM’s daughter Vani Devi as a tribute. He complimented the centenary celebrations committee for organising many programmes round the year despite the Coronavirus pandemic.
The Governor said by organising the celebrations, the state government had saluted the former PM and a son of the soil. "He always respected the country more than the politics and for that reason, he was successful in every field," she said.
Centenary celebrations committee chairman K. Keshava Rao, Rajya Sabha member, said the state government had requested the Centre to name the University of Hyderabad after Narasimha Rao in recognition of the services rendered by him.
He said six statues of Narasimha Rao, including one in Delhi and his native village Vangara, would be installed shortly. He also said the Andhra Pradesh government had taken a decision to install the former PM’s statue in Visakhapatnam.
A memorial and museum were also being planned at the Narasimha Rao Gnana Bhoomi by obtaining all permissions, he said.
