The 76th Independence Day was celebrated here on Monday with gaiety and pomp by honouring meritorious officials, distributing welfare measures and with the presentation of colourful cultural events by the school children.
After hoisting the national flag during the celebrations held at Armed Reserve Police Grounds in Palayamkottai, District Collector V. Vishnu released balloons in tricolor, inspected guard of honour by the police, NCC cadets, fire and rescue services and took salute.
He also distributed welfare measures to the tune of Rs. 6.77 lakh to 20 persons and honoured 161 meritorious officials from various government departments, 74 police personnel including constables Venugopal and Shanthi, who thwarted the attempt to murder an accused inside the Mahila Court and 18 fire and rescue services personnel.
Since the coordinated efforts of the joint special team formed by Mr. Vishnu by roping in officials from various departments to investigate the land grabbing complaints from the public has yielded excellent results within short period, Special Deputy Collector Thamizharasi, Deputy Superintendent of Police Jayapaul Barnabas, Assistant Inspector General of Registration Kavitha Rani, Inspector (Anti-Land Grabbing Cell) Shanthi, Special Tahsildar (Forest Land Taxation) Bhagavathi Perumal and Divisional Maintenance Surveyor Sethuraman were honoured on the occasion.
The Collector honoured the Regional Transport Officer M. Chandrasekaran for having arranged for vehicles for taking COVID-19 patients from their places to the hospitals and dropping them back in their villages after the end of the treatment and for the security arrangements made during the elections and Assistant Director of Fisheries G.A. Bushra Shabhnam for scrupulously implementing the welfare schemes of the State and the Central Governments and producing 19.90 lakh fingerlings in the Gadana Government Fingerling Depot against the target of 19.50 lakh.
The highlight of the celebrations was the riveting 21-minute-long cultural events presented by 315 students of Corporation Girls’ Higher Secondary School, Meenakshipuram, 450 students from Sri Jayendra Swamigal Golden Jubilee Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Sankar Nagar and 550 students from SAV Balakrishna Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Vadakkankulam.
Commissioner of Police, Tirunelveli City, Avinash Kumar, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Tirunelveli Range, Pravesh Kumar, Corporation Commissioner V. Sivakrishnamurthy, Sub-Collector, Cheranmahadevi, C.A. Rishabh, Superintendent of Police, Tirunelveli, P. Saravanan, Deputy Commissioners of Police V.R. Srinivasan, K. Saravanakumar, G.A. Anita and others participated in the celebrations.
In Tirunelveli Corporation, Mayor P.M. Saravanan hoisted the national flag in the presence of Commissioner V. Sivakrishnamurthy and Deputy Mayor K.R. Raju.
Independence Day celebrations were conducted in all schools and the colleges in the district on Monday. While Vice-Chancellor, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, K. Pitchumani hoisted the national flag on the 100-feet-tall mast at the main entrance of MSU, Dean, Veterinary College and Research Institute A. Palanisammi hoisted the tricolor at VC and RI premises at Ramaiyanpatti.
