Grand plans for PM address

Teacher’s Day speech to be beamed live to 18L schools West Bengal govt, however, said many schools did not have infrastructure for such a show

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to students on the occasion of Teacher’s Day is likely to be made a huge spectacle, with state governments across the country pulling out all stops to help children listen and interact with him.

Replicating this successful model, which he had implemented in Gujarat as chief minister, Mr Modi would address students across the country through video- conferencing and other modes from New Delhi.

States like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh said they are making “necessary arrangements” for the Prime Minister’s live address that includes hiring of television sets in schools, which lack the facility.

“This was the successful experiment here ( in Gujarat) which is going to be implemented at Centre. The entire country should be benefited from the success story of Gujarat and that is the reason why it has been planned,” education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasma said.

Mr Modi will give a pep talk to about 1,000 selected students at the Manekshaw Auditorium on September 5 and interact with them, taking some questions through a video- conferencing. The telecast would start at 3 pm and will continue up to 4.45 pm.

The programme will be beamed live to over 18 lakh government and private schools in the country via all Doordarshan and education channels.

The HRD ministry is pulling all efforts to make the programme a success, even making arrangements to hire generators in remote areas.

However, there was an occasional voice of dissent, with West Bengal saying many schools do not have the infrastructure for making such arrangements.