City boy gets Modi praise for Ganga gesture

His gesture to give the Rs 1,000 award, he won in a competition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Ganga cleaning mission has got a pat from the PMO for his ‘thoughtful gesture’.

In his handwritten letter, the boy, G Shashank, also invited the Prime Minister to his house at Madipakkam. He even gave directions and landmarks to the Prime Minister to reach his house, situated in Chakra Flats, Ayyappa Nagar.  In the letter, he said he loves to do ‘natural works’. He identified Ganga as the ‘religious river of our country’ and wanted it to be maintained properly.  In the letter, written neatly on a foolscap paper with pen, the 10-year-old said he had won the first prize in the IMCT competition that was organised by the A M Jain College in Chennai.  

It was a competition in devotional Sanskrit, titled, Sri Saraswathi Prarthanai. He also stated that he had won the first prize in the devotional competition last time when it was held and he was in Class 3. The boy, a student of DAV School in Adambakkam, also thanked his teachers, ‘books and subjects’ for their guidance. He also said that he does not use plastic and polythene bags so as to preserve nature.   

P K Bali, Under Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office, replied to Shashank, saying that ‘the Prime Minister appreciates his thoughtful gesture’. The National Mission for Clean Ganga is a society formed by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change in 2011. The Centre has been making massive efforts and to make the Ganga clean, which was also part of  Modi’s election promise to his Lok Sabha constituency, Varanasi.