The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) is conducting the mid-day meal scheme for school children efficiently, said Chief Minister K. Rosaiah at a function held at the ISKCON Hare Krishna Land at Sagar Nagar here on Monday.
The State Government faced some problems in conducting the mid-day meal scheme but ISKCON was doing well and the Government would hand over more schools to it, Mr. Rosaiah said.
Mr. Rosaiah clarified that his participation the ISKCON programme did not mean that he was propagating a religion in his capacity as the Chief Minister but he was a citizen of India, a country in which people have some beliefs.
He appreciated ISKCON members for their dedication, hard work and Spartan lifestyle and social service and many welfare programmes they were conducting. Even foreigners were propagating Krishna tatwa, he said.
The Chief Minister also conceded the request made by president of the local unit of ISKCON Samba Das to provide two more acres of land to the organisation at the market price.
Mr. Samba Das said ISKCON had 600 centres all over the world and 20,000 sub-centres. The local centre was allotted two acres of land by the Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy Government in 2005 and it needed two more acres, he said.
Mr. Rosaiah inaugurated the ISKCON Ashram building, a mechanised kitchen and guest house and released a magazine “Voice of Krishna”.
Ministers Kanna Lakshminarayana, P. Balaraju and Botcha Satyanarayana, Collector J. Syamala Rao, Commissioner of Police Purnachandra Rao, MLC D.S.N. Raju, MLAs Tynala Vijaya Kumar, Malla Vijaya Prasad, Dronamraju Srinivasa Rao along with Praja Rajyam MLAs M. Srinivasa Rao, P. Ramesh Babu and Ch. Venkatramaiah and others were present.
On Tuesday morning Mr. Rosaiah would participate in the Prajapatham programme at Padmanabham and inaugurate the College of Excellence building built by the Tribal Welfare Department at Paradesipalem in city outskirts. He would visit the Patnaik Art Gallery in MVP Colony before leaving for Hyderabad in the afternoon.
