After paying tributes to former President APJ Abdul Kalam and those killed in the Gurdaspur terror attack, the special one-day session of Delhi Assembly to discuss safety of women was adjourned on Tuesday to be held on August 3.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal called Dr Kalam the President of the aam aadmi and also announced that it will name the Rs10 lakh loan assistance scheme for the students after the “Missile Man” who died on Monday evening in Shillong.
“He was the Aam Aadmi’s president. As a multifaceted personality, he contributed in all the fields, but education was his favourite. On July 2, he came to the Delhi Secretariat and inspired teachers and principals for setting up model schools… He also appreciated the Delhi Government’s initiatives and its move to increase education budget. We were looking forward to have more opportunities to work with him and his death has created a vacuum for us all. The loan will be named after him as Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Higher Education & Skill Education Guarantee Scheme,” Kejriwal said.
Earlier, leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta also paid tributes to the former President and said that he will always be remembered as a teacher as he always wanted to. “He was an inspiration for the youth and he always exemplified how knowledge and hard work, not luck, are the keys for success,” he said.
While Gupta pointed out that Dr Kalam never associated with any political party, he said that it was the NDA Government under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee that appointed him the president.
“VajpayeeJi was not sure whether he would accept to become the President. But he did and the decision to make him the President was appreciated across the nation,” he said.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia called Kalam a true leader who led not only students and youth, but also political leaders.
“I also got the opportunity to meet him as the Education Minister of Delhi and he was pleased with the efforts of the Delhi Government towards education. He gave us a dream that when a student passes out of school, he gets two certificates: one for education and one for the skills learned. We told him that we’ll make all efforts to make his dream come true during his lifetime and we made attempts during the budget as well to make it come true,” said Sisodia.
Also, members of the Assembly condemned the terror attack in Gurdaspur and paid tributes to security forces and civilians who lost their life in the incident.
As a mark of respect to the departed leader, members of the Assembly observed silence for 30 seconds before the proceedings were adjourned for the day.