Greater Cincinnati Telangana Association (GCTA) organized the Meet and Greet event with Shri. Kadiyam Srihari, Deputy Chief Minister of Telangana on Sun, August 30th in the Atrium Hotel in Cincinnati, Ohio. The event was a Grand Success with a very good turnout of enthusiastic Telanganites who showed their passion and love for their State which is the newly formed Indian State a little over one year back.
The program started with a welcome note by GCTA committee member, Ganesh Kota, who gave a brief introduction of Shri. Kadiyam Srihari. There was a mention about GCTA, it’s formation, kind of events done in the past, especially Bonalu (first time celebrated in the USA), Bathukamma/Dasara, annual picnic and visits of Telangana political leaders and artists. Later, rich and glorious tributes were paid to Late Prof.Jayashankar who is considered as the founding father of Telangana State, remembering his sacrifices and sheer hard work that led all of us to enjoy, realize and live his dream of our Telangana State. Attendees of the event, remembered the selfless sacrifices and struggles of Telangana martyrs by marking a moment of silence. Then, the Telangana official state song ‘Jaya Jaya He Telangana…’ was sung that speaks for the pride of the Telangana people and captures the 10,000 year old splendid history of the region. Following the state song, Shri. Srihari was requested to address the audience.
Shri. Srihari first and foremost thanked everyone especially GCTA for organizing the event. Shi. Srihari who is also the Education Minister of the State, spent most part of his speech focusing on education. He referred to various steps taken by Government of Telangana for betterment of education like KG to PG Free Education Scheme etc. He thanked the people of Telangana for electing an able leader like Shri.K.Chandra Shekar Rao as the Chief Minister of the State.
Shri. Srihari touched upon challenges the State is currently facing and how the State Government is working to overcome them. He promised to come back next time to the US with a concept called ‘Own your school’ where in Telangana NRIs can invest in schools belonging to their native place back home.
The Deputy CM stressed the need for better infrastructure like working on four lane roads from the district headquarters to the state capital Hyderabad. He also dwelled upon decentralization of the growth and prosperity from Hyderabad to all four corners of the state. After an impressive speech by Shri. Srihari, it was time for questions and answers session. There were lot of questions posed to the minister, most of which were around education. Shri. Srihari answered all questions with patience.
Being the weekend of Raksha Bandhan (celebration of brother and sister relationship), ladies thronged the minister to tie Rakhis and showered their affection towards him. Shri. Srihari cut the raksha bandhan cake and offered to kids and elders.
Shri. Prasad Megada, Narayana Chatla who are also GCTA’s advisers participated in the cake cutting. This was followed by lunch that included Telangana savories. GCTA committee member Purma Reddy presented the Vote of thanks by thanking Shri. Kadiyam Srihari for visiting Cincinnati and also to all Telanganites for coming and showing support.
GCTA committee members Narasimha Rao Nagulavancha, Pavan Kumar Marri, Ganesh Kota, Reddy Purma, Suresh Devarakonda, Vishweshwar Reddy Gatla, Prasad Megada, Ravi Gummadavelli, Narayana Chatla, Sitaram Boyinepally, Chetana Reddy Katpally, Lakshmi Reddy, Sapna Upadhyay, Raghu Marla, Chary, Bhanu Venkatapuram, Kiran Kokkula, Krishna Janmanchi Dharmapuri, Saritha Voddi, Srini Ramini, Amarender k, Krishna Thandra, Jyothsna Poreddy, Raghu participated in the event.
Overall, it was a great event that exceeded everyone’s expectations. All the participants were very pleased with the event.
Greater Cincinnati Telangana Association (GCTA)
Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.