Tag Archives: Ghulam Nabi Azad

Congress veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad named among Padma Bhushan recipients

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JAMMU & KASHMIR :

Ghulam Nabi Azad, one of the top politicians of Jammu & Kashmir, has served as the chief minister of the erstwhile state between 2005 and 2008.

He was the Union health minister from 2009 and 2014, and subsequently served as the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha till February 2021.

Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad (PTI)

Former Jammu & Kashmir chief minister and veteran politician of the Congress party, Ghulam Nabi Azad, was included in the list of Padma Bhushan awardees released by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on January 25.

Azad, 72, will be conferred with Padma Bhushan by President Ram Nath Kovind for his contribution in the field of “public affairs”.

A total of 17 names were approved by the President for the conferment of Padma Bhushan — which is awarded for “distinguished service of high order”.

Apart from Azad, the list also includes another top politician – former West Bengal chief minister and senior CPI(M) leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

Azad, who served as the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha between June 2014 and February 2021, was lauded by the prime minister at the conclusion of his tenure in the Parliament’s Upper House.

“Azad has distinguished himself in Parliament. He not only worries about his Party but also had a similar passion towards the smooth running of the House and towards India’s development,” he had said.

Azad, a member of the Congress’ G-23 – an informal reference to 23 Congress veterans who had marked dissent against the party’s style of functioning, had apparently reciprocated the gesture last year by praising Modi for ‘not hiding his true self”.

Notably, Azad, before serving as the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha for close to seven years, was the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare in the second UPA government between 2009 and 2014.

He had served as the seventh chief minister of Jammu & Kashmir between November 2005 and July 2008.

The Padma awards, whose recipients are announced on the eve of Republic Day, are conferred by the President of India at ceremonial functions which are held at Rashtrapati Bhawan usually around March-April every year.

This year, the President has approved the conferment of 128 Padma awards. The list comprises 4 Padma Vibhushan, 17 Padma Bhushan and 107 Padma Shri awards.

source: http://www.moneycontrol.com / MoneyControl.com / Home> News> India / January 25th, 2022

Pedalling for children’s safety

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Kazhakkoottam (Thiruvananthapuram), KERALA  :

Students welcome Al Ameen at Rajagiri Public School.
Students welcome Al Ameen at Rajagiri Public School.

Al Ameen is on a Kashmir-to-Kanyakumari bicycle campaign against child abuse

Kochi :

Heavy rain accompanied by strong wind was what received 19-year-old Al Ameen in the city on Monday long before he could pedal his way to Rajagiri Public School for his formal reception.

The two receptions, the other being at Al-Ameen Public School, were among the five stopovers in the city over two days for the second-year sociology student from the Jamia Millia Central University, who is on a Kashmir-to-Kanyakumari bicycle campaign against child abuse.

Having popped antibiotics after getting beset with stomach upset and vomiting, the lashing rain further took its toll on the weakened body of the youngster who is originally from Kazhakkoottam in Thiruvananthapuram.

In fact, he was admitted at a hospital in Karnataka for a day before entering Kerala.

However, that didn’t douse the spirit of Al Ameen who mounted the cycle from Srinagar on June 2 with the noble intention of creating awareness among students about the need to stand up against abuse of varied hues against them.

“I also wanted to encourage students to actively participate in finding solutions to the problems faced by the community around them,” said Al Ameen who had been clocking around 80 kilometres a day.

He was briefly joined by his college mate Shigraf Zahbi in the Delhi-Rajasthan stretch before giving it up owing to hostile climatic conditions.

Asked why he opted for cycling to propagate his cause, the youngster said that the nobility of the cause alone would not win the attention it deserves unless combined with some extraordinary act. “For me, cycle is just the tool to attract attention to my larger goal,” he said.

Before his stopovers at five schools in the city, he had been accorded receptions at schools in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam and Alappuzha.

The receptions were organised by district child protection officers of the Women and Child Development Department.

He will now meet students of more schools in Malappuram, Kozhikode, Vadakara, Kasaragod and Manjeshwaram before wrapping up his campaign in Kanyakumari on July 23. by which time he would have covered around 4,250 kilometres.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kochi / by M.P. Praveen / Kochi – July 10th, 2018

Rajya Sabha bids farewell to three Congress MPs

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NEW DELHI :

Karan Singh, Janaradhan Diwedi and Parvez Hashmi will retire on January 27

Debates were becoming rare and disruptions more frequent, four time Rajya Sabha MP Karan Singh, rued even as he bade farewell to the upper house along with two other Congress MPs Janaradhan Diwedi and Parvez Hashmi.

In a speech peppered with Sanskrit shlokas and Urdu verses, Mr. Singh said, “Parliament has evolved over these 50 years but not all the changes have been positive I must say. I used to remember when I went to the Lok Sabha for the first time. There were brilliant debates by Hiren Mukherjee, Madhu Limaye, Nath Pai, Atalji and here Bhupesh Gupta. Those were the debates now seem to me becoming rare, and disruptions are becoming more frequent.”

He called upon the members to introspect. He said he had come to Delhi as an idealistic young man of 36 and was retiring as an ‘idealistic old man’’. “I have implicit faith that the county will overcome all its challenges as long as we remain faithful to our Constitution and civilisational values,” Mr Singh said.

Speakers from both sides showered praise on them for their contributions. All the three retiring MPs were elected from Delhi. The farewell was held today, the last day of the Winter Session. Their actual retirement date of January 27 would fall in the inter-session period.

Ghulam Nabi’s praise

Leader of the Opposition and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said his veteran party colleague Karan Singh had become the head of Jammu and Kashmir at the age of 18 and was probably world’s youngest person to hold such a post.

Mr. Dwivedi, who completed three terms as the Rajya Sabha MP, said generally farewell became like an “obituary reference” but today [Friday] was different.

Mr. Hashmi was not present in the house.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National / by Special Correspondent / New Delhi – January 05th, 2018

Manipur Governor Syed Ahmed laid to rest with full state honours

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Mumbai, MAHARASHTRA :

The Maharashtra government has declared a day’s mourning today.

Image credit : Twitter
Image credit : Twitter

Mumbai:

Manipur Governor Syed Ahmed was laid to rest here today with full state honours. 73-year-old Ahmed was suffering from cancer and admitted to Lilavati hospital in suburban Bandra last week where he breathed his last yesterday. The funeral took place at Rehmatabad, Shahi Kabrastan in Anjeerwadi, Mazgaon this afternoon. The last rites were conducted by his son Syed Zeeshan.

Maharashtra Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, Senior Congress leader Mukul Wasnik were present on the funeral. Ghulam Nabi Azad laid a wreath on behalf of Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

Manipur Labour minister Hemo Chandra Singh, former Union Minister Subodh Kant Sahay, who hails from Jharkhand, Maharashtra Congress chief Ashok Chavan, Mumbai Congress president Sanjay Nirupam and Mumbai Congress Minority department chairman Nizamuddin Rayeen also attended the funeral.

The Maharashtra government has declared a day’s mourning today. Ahmed was sworn in as the Governor of Manipur on May 16, 2015. Ahmed, a former Congress leader from Maharashtra, was shifted to the north-eastern State from Jharkhand, where he was appointed Governor on August 26, 2011 when the UPA Government was in power at the Centre.

He joined the Congress party in 1977. He was elected to the Maharashtra Assembly five times from the Nagpada constituency in Mumbai. He also served as a Minister in Maharashtra, where he held portfolios like Housing. Besides dabbling in politics, where he started his career in Congress, Ahmed also had a flair for writing, especially in Urdu. President Pranab Mukherjee and Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi were among others who had condoled Ahmed’s demise.

source: http://www.india.com / India.com / Home> News> India / by Press Trust of India / September 28th, 2015

JK Govt should enhance retirement age of doctors: Azad

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Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today asked the Jammu and Kashmir  government to raise the retirement age of doctors so that the health sector did not suffer for want of adequate staff.

Azad said this after inaugurating a 220-bed Super Speciality Hospital besides launching Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakaram (RBSK), Project Swasthya Slate and 102-J&K Referral Service under National Rural Health Mission here.

Regarding 102 referral service, he asked the state health minister to bring the remaining sanctioned 200 ambulances at the earliest.

Accompanied by Union Minister Farooq Abdullah, Azad said Jammu and Kashmir was the first state to get the Project Swasthya Slate to cover most difficult areas.

Spelling out achievements of the Centre and state governments, Azad said, “We have not only given new dimensions to health sector but all the development fields have witnessed a discernible change during the past 4 to 5 years.”

Azad said one more medical college has been sanctioned for Rajouri, thus raising the total number of newly sanctioned medical colleges to five.

He said the government has given nod to establish 75 cancer institutions in the country compared to only one such centre in the last 65 years.

He said the UPA government extended massive financial and moral support to all the states without any political, social or religious consideration.

Speaking on the occasion, Abdullah extended gratitude to the Centre for giving special consideration to development of J&K in view of its tough terrain and hoped it will continue to do so in future also.

He also thanked Azad for transforming the healthcare profile of the state.

source: http://www.business-standard.com / Business Standard / Home> PTI Stories> National> News / by Press Trust of India / Jammu- March 03rd, 2014