No place for terrorism and sectarian hatred in society: President Pratibha Patil

Lucknow, Sept 23 : Urging the youth of the nation to come forward to fight terrorism, President Pratibha Patil on Tuesday said terrorism and sectarian hatred have no place in the society as it is against development.

President Patil received the D.Lit (Honoris Causa) conferred by Lucknow University at a special convocation in Lucknow.

"Terrorism and communal hatred are enemies of development, stability and a peaceful society," she said in her convocation address.

The President further said, "We have to divest hatred from the minds of some of our misguided youth and bring them to the path of peace, amity and communal harmony."

Emphasising that it is the duty of every citizen of the country to co-operate in combating terrorism, she paid rich tributes to the Delhi Police Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, who sacrificed his life during the Jamia Nagar encounter on September 19, and hailed the security and police personnel engaged in fighting terrorism.

Reiterating the Government's commitments towards building and improving infrastructure facilities to ensure health, education and connectivity across the country, the President said all these require a large corpus of well-trained engineers and technologists and technology carries with itself the immense power to bring about revolutionary changes.

On the declining research facilities in the country, she said, "Research facilities in our universities need to be reinforced. Universities must become centres of research and advance research responding to the requirements of society and various economic sectors such as agriculture and industry."

ANI