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Bhubaneswar:City-based social groups have joined hands to observe the National Youth Day to mark the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda. As part of the celebrations, the Centre for Youth and Social Development (CYSD) here grouped about 150 youth and students from various educational institutions. The participating groups include CYSD, Committee for Legal Aid for the Poor (CLAP), National youth project (NYP), Institute for Social Development (ISD) and others.
Adviser to the Election Commission, Bhagaban Prakash, who attended the programme, said today’s youth must focus their energies on their overall growth and stay away from drugs and violence. He said productive use of youth power is the best way to lead a country on its path of development.
Their energies must be channelised for the development of our nation, he suggested. As part of the programes, 12 young social activists were felicitated. They are: Samina Senapathy, Anjana Sharma, Anadi Puhana, Sujata Mullick, Annapurna Das, Malaya Nayak, Gopinath Tudu, Deepak Mohanty, Sagar Sangam Raju, Mousumi Rout, Anang Kumar Behera and Sashmita Swain. Bikash Das, representing CLAP, said a nation like India has the huge population of youth who should be utilised in a great way for the overall growth of the country. NYP convener Madhusudhn Das said role of parents plays a key role in the development of the youth. A NYP programme titled ‘Campus leader’ has been evolved to train select energetic youths from the colleges and universities of the state.
Real life heroes feted
There is nothing better than serving the needy with dedication. As part of the National Youth Day, We4You honoured 11 youth volunteers who created an audio book for visually-impaired students at Buddha Vihar, here Friday. The Social Impact Awards were conferred on the youth volunteers – Diptimayee, Anindit, Asmita, Sushree, Priyadarshini, Elisa, Abhipsa, R Seema, Anil, S Prasad, Samiksha and Twinkle. When contacted Anindita, a Biology student of OUAT Basic Science College, said there is shortage of Braille printers in Orissa for which visually impaired students could not access their books. “We planned to create record books for these students,” she claimed. The NGO also presented Social Impact Awards to 40 blood donors, five blood bank employees and 10 vol
untary organisations on the occasion. The Lifetime Achievement Award was also conferred on Gopi Mohan Patnaik, a blood donor. Speaking to Orissa POST, Krushna Tripathy, a member of the NGO, said, “For the first time we took the initiative to honour real life heroes for their contribution to the society. About 25,000 visually-impaired students were the beneficiaries of the audio books.We need to honour such people for their commendable work.” Indian Red Cross Society, Orissa branch also organised a programme on National Youth Day at Red Cross Bhawan. Income Tax commissioner Sarat Kuamr Das inaugurated the event. Prizes to winners of competitions in painting, Rangoli, quiz, debate, songs, and essay writing were awarded to college students at the end of the ceremony