Kishtwar, August 20:(KNS) The 76th Birth Anniversary of former Prime Minister Late Rajiv Gandhi Ji was celebrated by the Congress party in Kishtwar district.

The function was presided over by Shri Ghulam Mohammad Saroori, Vice President PCC and attended by various senior leaders.

Speaking on the occasion G. M Saroori described Rajiv Gandhi as the architect of Panchayat Raj System in the Country. He fulfilled the dreams of great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi to devolve powers of planning and development to the grass root institutions of democracy, so that the people shape their own destiny as per their needs. He translated the concept of participatory democracy at the grass root levels.

Saroori referred to number of achievements of Shri Gandhi during his leadership and said that country emerged as leader of the World in Information Technology due to vision of Rajiv Ji for the youth, whom he gave a direction for the challenges of 21st Century, which showed his farsightedness. The opposition parties especially BJP leaders had failed to match his vision of Computer and IT and criticized him at that time, he regretted. The time proved that his vision of IT brought a revolution in the day to day life of common people and economic progress of this country.

PCC Vice Chief said that Shri Rajiv Gandhi had taken a historical decision and lowered the voting age from 21 years to 18 years in order to ensure that the youth of the country also participate in the democratic systems and take lead in politics to serve the nation with young ideas.

The other speakers in their speeches recalled the contributions of the Late Rajiv Gandhi and remembered his achievements in various spheres during his short stint in politics. They referred to his efforts to achieve peace in various parts of the Country during his period through dialogue and settled various issues and situations confronting the Country.

Prominent among those who spoke and attended the function include Er. Raj Kumar Badyal, Tariq Hussain Mintoo, Wassim Saroori, Advocate Suman Bandhari, Advocate Shaik Abrar, Ghulam Husain Shah, Surjeet Badyal, Shanker Wazir, Ali Mohd, Ranjeet Sharma, Mohit Singh Sen, Pankaj Badyal, Chowdhary Mirza, Ghulam Nabi and others.(KNS)