By IANS
Amravati (Maharashtra) : President Pratibha Patil is to get a roaring welcome when she arrives Saturday in Amravati, her husband’s hometown, for the first time after taking over the country’s highest office in July.
An imposing dais, cast in the shape of Delhi’s Red Fort, is getting finishing touches. It incorporates replicas of Amravati’s Amba temple along with idols of goddesses Amba Devi and Ekvira Devi.
While musicians from Pune have been invited to play welcome tunes on trumpets, a huge rose garland is being brought in from Hyderabad.
Governor S.M. Krishna will preside over the function. Bihar Governor R.S. Gavai, who is from Maharashtra, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, Deputy Chief Minister R.R. Patil and MP Nirmala Deshpande will attend as chief guests.
The president will inaugurate the silver jubilee celebrations of the Amravati Municipal Corporation and the Amba festival. She will be presented a scroll of honour and a memento.
A Maharashtra bureaucrat was summoned to New Delhi this week to brief the president on the status of Vidarbha’s agrarian crisis and the implementation of the prime minister’s relief package. Amravati is the divisional headquarters of the five Vidarbha districts the package covers.