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New Delhi, May 01 (UNI) President Ram Nath Kovind will preside over the first meeting here on Wednesday of the National Committee for Commemoration of 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi next year.
The committee, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has on board 114 members including former Prime Ministers Atal Bihari Vajpayee, HD Deve Gowda, Manmohan Singh, former Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani, the Chief Justice of India, Lok Sabha Speaker, members of union cabinet, political party leaders, chief ministers, Gandhians, RSS members, spiritual gurus and social workers among others.
The committee has as members opposition leaders including Sonia Gandhi, Karan Singh, Mallikarjun Kharge, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Omar Abdullah, and former Chief Minister of Delhi Sheila Dixit among several others.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Jaggi Vasudev, Bindeshwar Pathak, Kailash Satyarthi, Prasoon Joshi, Radhaben Bhat, Dattatreya Hosabale and few current and former heads of Gandhian institutions are on board.
Political Party Chiefs including Amit Shah (BJP), Rahul Gandhi (Congress), Sharad Paward (NCP), Sudhakar Reddy (CPI), Sitaram Yechury (CPM) are members of the panel.
The mandate of the committee is to approve policies and plans including preparatory activities for commemoration of the birth anniversary of 150th birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation from October 2, 2019 to October 2, 2020.
The recommendations of the committee will be considered for implementation by the government.
In his budget proposals this year, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitly had earmarked Rs 150-crore for Gandhi’s 150 birth centenary celebrations in 2019.
The Ministry of Culture will be the nodal ministry for the celebrations, with Union Culture Secretary as member-secretary.
UNI GP SNU 1322/1353