NEW DELHI, Aug 11: Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu said today that in his first year in the constitutional office he had carried out “effective engagement” with different stakeholders through his visits to 28 of the 29 states across the country.
He said his engagements were focused on students, youths and farmers, and science and research and culture as 60 per cent of his total 313 major outdoor events were related to them.
The vice president’s secretariat also posted five tweets giving a summary of Naidu’s outreach during the year.
Setting a record for any vice president, Naidu visited 28 of the 29 states in the country.
Sikkim was the only state he could not visit as a scheduled event had to be cancelled due to inclement weather.
He visited all the seven northeastern states.
According his office, he visited 56 universities and addressed 29 convocations urging students and youths to look forward to the future with a sense of confidence, seizing the emerging opportunities within and outside the country as complete individuals rooted in Indian cultural ethos while at the same time imbibing modern vision.
The vice president also visited 15 leading centres of science and research in the country for interacting with scientists and researchers and urged them to compete with the best in the world.
Through his 60 domestic visits outside Delhi and 313 major outdoor events and daily engagements of over 12, Naidu has reached out to over 450 countrymen everyday during the past year motivating them towards inspired actions.
On his first and sole foreign visit, Naidu visited three Latin American countries of Guatemala, Panama and Peru, and held wider ranging discussions on bilateral and multi-lateral issues with the presidents and senior ministers of those countries.
Naidu was the first high-level dignitary from India to visit Guatemala and Panama. He also met in Delhi 22 visiting foreign leaders including Presidents of Germany, Switzerland and Belgium, and Prime Ministers of Nepal, Cambodia and Italy.
Naidu was sworn in as the 13th Vice President on August 11 last year. He is the ex-officio chairman of Rajya Sabha.
As the Rajya Sabha Chairman’s ‘Moments of the Year’, just-concluded monsoon session has been described as the ‘Hope of the Year’, presiding over the full-day proceedings of the House on July 24, 2018 as the ‘Moment of Endurance’ and an all-party meeting before the start of the monsoon session as the ‘Breakthrough moment of the Year’.
His ‘New Tidings of the Year’ include the decision on disqualification of three members of Rajya Sabha in three months, quick decision on the notice for removal of Chief Justice of India, and setting up a two-member committee to review rules of the House.
He also made available simultaneous interpretation facility for five more languages making such facility now available in all the 22 scheduled languages.
Despite persistent disruptions during the winter session of last year and budget session of this year, Rajya Sabha passed 27 bills during the three sessions presided over by Naidu during his first year as the chairman of the House, according to the Rajya Sabha secretariat. (AGENCIES)
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