PM Modi is scheduled to lay the foundation stone of a Rs 25-crore Sant Kabir Research Academy. He will also offer a ‘chadar’ at his tomb and later address a public rally.
Prime Minister Modi (Photo: IANS)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow in a special Indian Air Force (IAF) plane on Thursday to pay his respects to 15th-century Indian mystic poet and saint Kabir Das.
PM Modi was received by Governor Ram Naik, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Mayor Sanyukta Bhatia and other cabinet ministers and bureaucrats, an official said.
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The Prime Minister, along with Adityanath and Tourism Minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi left for Maghar in Sant Kabir Nagar, where the saint is supposed to have died in 1518.
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PM Modi is scheduled to lay the foundation stone of a Rs 25-crore Sant Kabir Research Academy. He will also offer a ‘chadar’ at his tomb and later address a public rally.
This is the 500th year of the saint’s passing away.
READ | Sant Kabir’s story, writings, philosophies and some lesser known facts
The Uttar Pradesh cabinet had approved the setting up of Sant Kabir Academy on Wednesday.
The Academy will be built at a cost of Rs 25 crore. The project had got the financial approval on 13 June, 2018.
The cabinet decided that the functioning of the Sant Kabir Academy would be governed by the Society Registration Act 1860. It will comprise four departments — governing body, working committee, finance committee and research and development committee.
An official spokesman said the proposed Academy was being constituted for the specific purpose of undertaking research, survey, publication and exhibition of the life and works of the social reformer at both national and international levels. In addition, a state-of-the-art library relating to Kabir’s writings will be established too.
The PM’s visit to the backward district of Sant Kabir Nagar in Eastern UP is being seen in the light of the upcoming parliamentary elections of 2019. A much neglected area, the district is famous for its weaving community and sugarcane production.
(With agency inputs)
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