ATA-TANA to felicitate AP CM in Chicago

Hyderabad, Apr 17 (UNI) American Telugu Association (ATA) and the Telugu Association of North America (TANA), the two-national bodies of USA, will jointly felicitate Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy at Chicago on May 6.

Informing this at a press conference here today, ATA president Chandra Reddy Gavva said the Chief Minister would visit US to address a conference on agricultural sector at St Louis.

Nearly 1,000 special invitees would attend the banquet dinner on May six at Chicago and this would be the second occasion when the Chief Minister would address a meeting organised and participated by two big national bodies in USA in which Mr Rod R Blagojevich, Governor Illinois state, would be present, he said.

ATA had prepared a ten-point programme to expand its activities in India and in US. It had proposed to adopt one village each in the three regions of Andhra, Telangana and Rayalaseema to develop them.

The ATA was spending nearly two million US Dollars every year towards various projects and programmes in Andhra Pradesh and plans were afoot to raise more funds to spend on focussed and result-oriented projects.

The tenth conference of the ATA would be held in New York in July 2008 with 'Pravaasa Theeram-Dasavatgaram' as the theme, he added.

Former ATA President Mohan Mallam said ATA and TANA were conducting various programmes for the promotion of Telugu and its culture in Andhra Pradesh as well as in US.

ATA had constructed 100 houses at Chirala in Andhra Pradesh for the tsunami-affected people and was also providing financial support to construct school buildings, hostels and offering scholarships to the students in the state through the funds raised by NRIs, he added.

UNI