The Hans India: Khammam: Wednesday,
June 29, 2016.
Notwithstanding
the fact that the National Pledge (India is my country and all Indians are my brothers
and sisters…. ) is recited all over the country for over five decades now, the
travesty is such that a majority of the students and educationists have no clue
of Nalgonda-born Pydimarri Venkata Subba Rao who wrote it in Telugu in 1962.
Incidentally, The Hans India reported a story on Pydimarri –National Pledge
Writer gets recognition, finally in its columns on June 30, 2015.
Albeit the
Telangana Government has mentioned Pydimarri as the author of the National
Pledge in the textbooks released last year, the authorities concerned have no
clue about the author as it took more than a year for them to find a reply to a
query seeking to know the name of the writer of the National Pledge filed under
Right To Information Act (RTI) by a denizen.
Telangana
Vidyavanthula Vedika Secretary Jampala Vishwa of Garla sought to know the name
of the writer of the Pledge and when it was written from the Public Information
Officer (PIO), Special Deputy Collector (KRRC) in Khammam. The Office of the
PIO which has no information about the details transferred the application
under section 6/3 to the PIO, Information and Public Relations (I&PR) of
the district.
The
inordinate delay forced the applicant to lodge a complaint with the Chief
Information Commissioner. The PIO of I&PR informed the Commissioner that
they had written a letter to the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD),
New Delhi, to get the details of the Pledge as there was no record in their
office about it.
Strangely,
the MHRD transferred the application to the University Grants Commission (UGC)
citing that they didn’t have information about it. Subsequently, the Department
of Education in Social Sciences furnished the details to the applicant and the
PIO of I&PR on April 18 stating that it was Pydimarri who wrote the Pledge.
The Chief Information Commissioner M Ratan appreciated the I&PR, Khammam,
Assistant Director Md Murthuja for following the issue to procure the
information.
Though the
Pledge was written in Telugu by Pydimarri way back in 1962 while he was working
as the district treasury officer in Visakhapatnam, majority of the students and
the educationists have no clue of the fact. Pydimarri reportedly penned the
Pledge in an effort to instill patriotism among the people during the
Sino-Indian war. With the initiative taken by the freedom fighter Tenneti
Viswanatham and the then education minister of AP state PVG Raju, the pledge
was first introduced in the schools of Visakhapatnam before it was taken up at
the national level. The government had the pledge, which is in Telugu
translated into all languages.
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