President calls for righteousness in admn., politics, judiciary

New Delhi, Mar 23: President A P J Abdul Kalam today ( Mar 23, 2006) called for righteousness in the multiple dimensions of the society, especially among politicians, administration and judiciary, along with an indomitable spirit for realising the vision of a developed country.

''Particularly, people who are working in societal transformation have to have a unique quality of righteousness in all their actions,'' said Dr Kalam while presenting the Second Nirmal Gram Puruskar to 770 Panchayati Raj Institutions for their role in providing sanitation facilities in rural areas of the country.

''In a society we have to build righteousness among all its constituents. For the society as a whole to be righteous we need creation of righteousness in family, righteousness in education, righteousness in service, righteousness in career, righteousness in business and industry, righteousness in civil administration, righteousness in politcs, righteousness in government, righteousness in law and order, righteousness in justice. In addiiton to righteousness in multiple dimensions in the soicety, indomitable spirit is essential for realising the visioin of is developed India including total sanitation in all our villages,'' he said.

Dr Kalam said that Sanitation is a noble mission for the nation and it should be taken forward with great vigour. It is an important mission as it involves lakhs of villages and rural persons across India and is aimed at the betterment of their lives through their efforts and the government agencies guidance.

This mission forms part of the larger mission for transforming India into a developed nation by 2020. Good sanitary conditions and infrastructure are important indicators of the state of development of any nation, he said.

Pointing out that rural sanitation has been much neglected in the country, he said that it needs to be improved drastically for a better quality of life for our people and children. He said sanitation could be provided only by mobilising all sections of society. He said providing sanitation facility was not the only responsibility of the government, but also of the elected representatives of the Panchayati Raj Institutes, NGOs and members of the civil society.

UNI