Lokesh calls for public participation in Visakhapatnam’s development

Andhra Pradesh IT and HRD Minister Nara Lokesh on Monday called for greater public participation in Visakhapatnam’s development, saying that civil society, the government and officials could achieve more by working together.

Speaking after inaugurating the Sneha Sandhya Age Care Foundation’s Centre for Geriatric and Palliative Care at Gambheeram in Anandapuram mandal, Mr. Lokesh said the services rendered by late Dr. S.V. Adinarayana Rao would be remembered.

He said Dr. Adinarayana Rao’s family had allocated six acres for social service and described the facilities developed there as an example of how one person’s contribution could benefit many.

A college, a midday meal programme through the Hare Krishna Movement and facilities for the care of the elderly have been set up on the land, he said.

Mr. Lokesh said it was painful that some parents were neglected in old age. As the HRD Minister, he said, he had a responsibility to ensure that children received not merely education but education imbued with values and ethics, from the Anganwadi level to higher education.

“A developed India without values is not a developed India,” he said.

The Minister said the State government was providing a pension of ₹4,000 to the elderly and ₹6,000 to persons with disabilities so that they could live with dignity. He called the donors role models for society and said the 100-bed hospital established on about one lakh square feet was commendable. He said the palliative care centre should become a model for the country and the world and urged young people to participate in such service activities.

On Visakhapatnam’s development, Mr. Lokesh said the government would not undertake any programme against the interests of the people or the nature. Public representatives had a responsibility to dispel misconceptions that could arise when development took place rapidly, he said.

Referring to data centres, he said that he had inspected an Intel data centre and that technologies aimed at reducing water use, including air cooling, would be given priority in Visakhapatnam.

Mr. Lokesh said that the AIG Hospital would be completed in two years and that Visakhapatnam would set a new development benchmark, as Hyderabad had. “Visakhapatnam should be number one,” he said, adding that the objective was to develop it as one of the country’s model cities.

Hare Krishna Vaikuntham cultural complex

Earlier, the Minister visited the Akshaya Patra Foundation’s centralised kitchen. He performed the bhumi puja for the Hare Krishna Vaikuntham cultural complex in the presence of Hare Krishna Movement, Visakhapatnam president Niskinchana Bhakta Dasa and inaugurated the new college building of the Prema Group of Educational Institutions. At the care centre, he opened the fourth and fifth floors and met major donors.

O. Naresh Kumar, chairman of the fund-raising committee of the Sneha Sandhya Age Care Foundation, presided. Foundation chairman G. Sambasiva Rao, managing trustee N. Satyanarayana Raju, Prema Group of Educational Institutions chairman Sunkara Sasi Kiran, Dr. R. Sasi Prabha, chairperson of the Free Polio Surgical and Research Foundation, Member of Parliament M. Sribharat, TDP State president Palla Srinivasa Rao and MLAs Ganta Srinivasa Rao and Vishnu Kumar Raju were present.