Handique Honours Youth Parliament Competition Winners

New Delhi, Apr 20 (UNI) Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs B K Handique here today presented awards to the winners of the Ninth Youth Parliament Competition (2005-2006) for 'Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas'.

The students of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Veleru in Krishna District of Andhra Pradesh bagged the first prize in the competition in which 84 schools took part at the regional level.

Merit Trophies were awarded to seven schools for winning top positions in their respective regions.

These Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas are: Bringkhera, Distt.

Muktsar, Punjab (Chandigarh Region); Shankar Nagar, Biloli, Distt.

Nanded, Maharashtra, (Pune Region); Monacherra, Assam (Shillong Region); Pauta, PO Chandwar, Jharkhand (Patna Region); Pichhore, Near Darba, Madhya Pradesh (Bhopal Region); Saindwar, Distt. Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh (Lucknow Region); and Kherli, Distt. Dausa, Rajasthan (Jaipur Region).

On the occasion, Minister Handique observed that the Youth Parliament Competitions helped promote habits of discipline, qualities of leadership, awareness of social problems and the democratic means of solving them.

''Such training of our younger generation plays a vital role in inculcating democratic spirit in them'', he said.

The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs has been organising Youth Parliament competitions for Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas for the past nine years.

In 1988, a separate National Youth Parliament Scheme for Kendriya Vidyalayas was introduced as part of the celebrations of 40 years of India's Independence and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's Birth Centenary.

The Youth Parliament Scheme aims at inculcating among the younger generation the spirit of self-discipline, tolerance of diverse opinion, righteous expression of views and other virtues of democratic way of life.

Besides, the scheme acquaints the students with the practices and procedures of Parliament, techniques of discussion and debate and develops in them the quality of leadership.

UNI