By IANS
Sriperumbudur (Tamil Nadu) : President Pratibha Patil Saturday opened the Rajiv Gandhi National Institute for Youth Development in this southern suburb of Chennai city, where former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in 1991.
Before inaugurating the institute, the president and the Congress leaders accompanying her visited the Rajiv Gandhi memorial and paid tributes to the leader.
The president also announced the Panchayat Yuva Khel aur Krida Abhiyan, a nationwide campaign that would be supported by the union government, to provide organised sports facilities at the village level.
“I am sure this institute will become an effective resource agency and think tank for youth policies and programmes, which could play a major role in realising the objectives of the Abhiyan,” she added.
“After six decades of Independence there are still far too many children and adolescents who do not go to schools and are dropouts. Only a few go for higher studies and even fewer are being given the opportunity to acquire the skills that would qualify them for employment in sectors such as IT,” she said.
“Former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi believed that the people of India were his greatest treasure, so it should be our aim to make people fully recognise their capabilities.”
Focussed strategies and investment would be required to develop the vast human capital to realise the young demographic advantage, according to the president.
“It is incumbent upon the youth of the country to prepare themselves for the responsibilities that lie ahead and to look at the challenges facing the nation.
“For meeting the future with confidence and fulfilling the dream of a modern India, the youth would have to inculcate in themselves a sense of discipline, a spirit of tolerance, a quest for knowledge, a positive mind and respect for fellow human beings,” she said.
The youths have a role in participating in the nation’s political life, contributing to economic development, protecting the environment, preserving the country’s age-old traditions and living up to the standards of India’s ideals and values, she said.
She also inaugurated the website of the new institute.
This was Patil’s first visit to Tamil Nadu as president. She had launched her presidential poll campaign here.
Patil, who arrived in Chennai Friday night, was welcomed by Tamil Nadu Governor S.S. Barnala and Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi.
She was accompanied by her husband Devisingh Shekhawat, Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Mani Shankar Aiyar and Youth Affairs Secretary S.K. Arora.