Cong leader Kumari Ananthan on 'padayatra'

Madurai, Jan 30 (UNI) Veteran Congress leader and former TNCC President Kumari Ananthan started a 'padayatra' along with 85 partymen to create awareness among the people about the need for interlinking national rivers, here this evening.

The padayatra was also to highlight the need for constructing a 'Matha Nallinakka Samathuva Thirukovil' (Temple for Communal Amity) and for religious harmony.

The Congressmen, on a 330-km padayatra from Gandhi Museum in the city, would be passing through Dindigul, Karur, Namakkal and Salem districts, before reaching Papparapatti village in Dharmapuri district.

Addressing a function organised in connection with the yatra, Mr Ananthan said India would prosper only by linking all the national rivers, particular by the Ganga and Cauvery rivers.

He hoped that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would take steps to inter-link all the rivers for the prosperity of the country.

The Congress leader further said in 1923, Chittaranjan Das, the mentor of Netaji Subash Chandra Bose, had laid the foundation stone for the Samathuva Thirukovil at Papparapatti. Though eight decades had passed, the construction was yet to take-off for various reasons. He also appealed to the Union and State governments to take necessary steps for constructing the Samathuva Thirukovil immediately.

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