Azad recalls Vedires Bhoodan at Pochampally

HYDERABAD: Recalling the Bhoodan Movement launched by Acharya Vinoba Bhave, Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has said that he will speak with the minister concerned for release of a commemorative postage stamp on Vedire Ramachandra Reddy who was the first to respond to Vinoba’s call and donated 100 acres of land for the Bhoodan Movement at Pochampally in Nalgonda district.Participating in the diamond jubilee celebrations of the Bhoodan Movement here on Sunday, Azad said Mahatma Gandhi’s gospel of non-violence and truth was relevant even in today’s world, and called for its propagation in Andhra Pradesh. “The tenet of non-violence was spread in a big way among school children in Jammu and Kashmir which was rocked by violence for 20 years.When I was chief minister I introduced non-violence and truth as lessons for children and even conducted essay-writing competitions for school students,” Azad said and advised chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy to conduct essay-writing competitions for children and give away cash prizes as was done in Jammu and Kashmir. The chief minister, who shared the dais with Azad, readily accepted the suggestion and declared that he would give away prizes to school children on the next Gandhi Jayanti day.The chief minister said the government would widen the existing road at Pochampally into a double road and name it after Vedire Ramachandra Reddy. On land distribution by the government he said the state government had given pattas for the poor to cultivate 54 lakh acres.Of that, 25 lakh acres will be developed into arable lands at an estimated cost of `7,000 crore.Under Indira Jala Prabha, which will be formally launched on October 2, the government would provide irrigation facility to 5 lakh acres and another 5 lakh acres next year, he said.