Hyderabad/Pune: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on a day-long visit to Pune today, has been conferred with the Lokmanya Tilak National Award. PM Modi shared the stage with NCP leader Sharad Pawar at the ceremony. The Prime Minister is here to attend a series of events and will lay the foundation stones of several development projects.
The Lokmanya Tilak National Award is given by the Tilak Smarak Mandir Trust to honour the legacy of freedom fighter Lokmanya Tilak. The Award is being given from the year 1983. The award is given to people who have worked for the progress and development of nation and whose contribution can only be looked upon as remarkable and extraordinary. It is presented every year on August 1, the death anniversary of Lokmanya Tilak.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will become the 41st recipient of the award. In the past, the Award has been conferred upon former Presidents Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma, Pranab Mukherjee, former Prime Ministers Atal Bihari Vajpayee,. Indira Gandhi and Dr. Manmohan Singh, Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy and Dr. E. Sreedharan among others.
Pawar play-National Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar and veteran Congress leader and former Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, who is considered close to the Tilak family, are expected to attend the glittering function, which will take place at the Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth ground in Mukund Nagar in Pune.
If Sharad Pawar, who has been invited as the Chief Guest, by the Tilak Smarak Mandir Trust, attends the event, it will be the first time he will share the stage with the Prime Minister after revolt by his nephew Ajit Pawar, who joined the Eknath Shinde led Maharashtra government.
Upon arrival in Pune, the Prime Minister will visit the famed Dagdusheth temple, where lakhs of devotees of Lord Ganesh throng throughout the year.
At around 11 AM, the Prime Minister will perform Darshan and Pooja at Dagdusheth Mandir.
At 11.45 AM, he will be conferred Lokmanya Tilak National Award. At 12.45 PM, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off metro trains and inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of various development projects.
Pune Metro inauguration-The PM will flag off Metro trains marking inauguration of services on completed sections of the two corridors of Pune Metro Phase I. These sections are from Phugewadi station to Civil Court station and Garware College station to Ruby Hall Clinic station.
The foundation stone of Pune Metro was laid by the Prime Minister in 2016 and he had inaugurated the Pune Metro from Garware College to Vanaz.
The Civil Court metro station is one of the deepest metro stations in the country, having the deepest point at 33.1 m. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also inaugurate the Waste to Energy Plant under Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC). Developed at a cost of about Rs 300 crores, it will use up about 2.5 lakh MT of waste annually to produce electricity.
Welfare measures dole-The Prime Minister will also handover more than 1280 houses constructed under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana by PCMC. He will also handover more than 2650 PMAY houses constructed by Pune Municipal Corporation. PM Modi will also lay the foundation stone of around 1190 PMAY houses to be constructed by PCMC, and of over 6400 houses constructed by Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority.
Maharashtra Governor Ramesh Bais, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis Ajit Pawar are expected to be present for all the functions to be graced by the PM. The Pune Police have beefed up the security in view of the Prime Minister's visit and have also banned the use of drones in the city.
