Vice President asks students to emulate Goenka

Wednesday August 11 2004

MANDAWA: Stating that it would be tough for India to emerge as a developed nation by 2020 unless poverty and corruption are scotched, Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat on Tuesday cited the example of late Ram Nath Goenka as a tireless soldier against corruption.

While inaugurating a college building at Mandawa, the city of forts, where Goenka fort and Sonthalia fort are the oldest, Shekhawat recounted the days of Ram Nath Goenka. He called upon the students to imbibe Goenka's ``energy and bravery''. ``He was always eager to fight against malpractices,'' the Vice-President said.

Shekhawat recalled that Goenka was always keen to build a college for Mandawa. In his last days, Goenka often used to ask for a cheque for the construction of the college building, the Vice-President said. ``I used to tell him that I will give you not one but 20 cheques. But first get well,'' Shekhawat said, adding that unfortunately Goenka never recovered. He said he was paying his homage to Goenka by laying the foundation stone of the college on Tuesday.

Returning to the issue of growing corruption, the Vice-President repeated what former PM Rajiv Gandhi had said, that out of the one rupee allocated for a government project, only 15 paise reaches the needy. He stressed that unless a Government gives priority to poverty alleviation, it cannot hope to be voted back to power.

Emphasising on the education of the girl child, Shekhawat said: ``If one woman is taught, one can be rest assured that the whole family will be educated.'' He asked the college principal, Parmanand Churiwala, to ensure that only merited children are admitted. ``You should not admit children through recommendations,'' he said.

Recalling his tenure as Chief Minister, Shekhawat said it was he, who had introduced the concept of distributing free books to school children from Class I to Class V. In the first year itself, books worth Rs 17 crore were distributed. Later, this became the practice, he said.

Shekhawat said when he became the Chief Minister, literacy rate in Rajasthan was only 38 per cent, which rose to 61.5 per cent. ``No one can now term Rajasthan as an illiterate state,'' he said.

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