Cleanliness drive: Governor felicitates 7 students

Nandini, a final year BA Literature student from the Tiruvannamalai Government Arts College was applauded for her initiative to remove posters and graffiti from the compound wall of her college.

Ramakrishnan, a Class 6 student of a government school, came in for praise for sweeping the road inside collector’s office with a tree branch. 

C Pooja and S Vaishnavi, students of a private school who were asked by district collector KS Kandasamy to take classes at a government primary school at Vengikkal on environment related issues; and Ashwini, Yughalakshmi and Naveen Kumar, all students of the panchayat union middle school at Semmambadi who won first prizes at an all India competition on “zero food wastage” held in Bengaluru were among the other students who were singled out for praise. 

All students were also gifted copies of books authored by former president APJ Abdul Kalam, carrying the governor’s autograph. 

The governor started his day by reading out a cleanliness pledge to school and college students at the market ground in the town and flagged off the Swachh Bharat Rath organised by the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) on Thursday. 

As part of the campaign, Governor Purohit swept the road in front of Arunachaleswarar temple’s raja gopuram and handed over sanitary equipment to 345 sanitary staff. He also inaugurated an exhibition on government schemes organised by different government departments, and distributed Swachh Bharat pamphlets and stickers to the public. 

Winding up his visit, he then reviewed the functioning of various state and central government schemes with officials including collector Kandasamy and SP R Ponni at the PWD guest house and received petitions from the public and NGOs. 

Tamil Nadu governor Banwarilal Purohit was greeted with black flags in Tiruvannamalai by opposition DMK on Thursday, for allegedly interfering in the administration of the state. About 1,000 cadres lead by Tiruvannamalai MLA EV Velu waved black flags and wore black shirts at the agitation venue near the Gandhi statue in the heart of the town. There were several posters against the governor for allegedly disregarding the federal structure and the state’s democratic traditions. The usually busy Theradi street in the heart of the town wore a deserted look due to the governor’s visit and the DMK agitation