As Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu completed one year in office on Saturday, he said in his first year in the constitutional office he had carried out “effective engagement” with different stakeholders through his visits to 28 of the 29 States across the country.
He said his engagements were focused on students, youths and farmers, and science and research and culture as 60 per cent of his total 313 major outdoor events were related to them. The Vice President’s secretariat also posted five tweets giving a summary of Naidu’s outreach during the year. Setting a record for any vice president, Naidu visited 28 of the 29 states in the country. Sikkim was the only state he could not visit as a scheduled event had to be cancelled due to inclement weather. He visited all the seven northeastern states.
According his office, Naidu visited 56 universities and addressed 29 convocations urging students and youths to look forward to the future with a sense of confidence, seizing the emerging opportunities within and outside the country as complete individuals rooted in Indian cultural ethos while at the same time imbibing modern vision.
Through his 60 domestic visits outside New Delhi and 313 major outdoor events and daily engagements of over 12, Naidu has reached out to over 450 countrymen everyday during the past year motivating them towards inspired actions.
On his first and sole foreign visit, Naidu visited three latin American countries of Guatemala, Panama and Peru, and held wide ranging discussions on bilateral and multi-lateral issues with the presidents and senior ministers of those countries.
As the Rajya Sabha Chairman’s ‘Moments of the Year,’ just-concluded monsoon session has been described as the ‘Hope of the Year,’ presiding over the full-day proceedings of the House on July 24, 2018 as the ‘Moment of Endurance’ and an all-party meeting before the start of the monsoon session as the ‘Breakthrough moment of the Year.’
His ‘New Tidings of the Year’ include the decision on disqualification of three members of Rajya Sabha in three months, quick decision on the notice for removal of Chief Justice of India, and setting up a two-member committee to review rules of the House.
Despite persistent disruptions during the winter session of last year and budget session of this year, Rajya Sabha passed 27 bills during the three sessions presided over by Naidu during his first year as the chairman of the House, according to the Rajya Sabha secretariat.