PM Modi to visit Pune on Aug 1, to be conferred Lokmanya Tilak award

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Pune on August 1, where he will be conferred with Lokmanya Tilak National Award.

The award was constituted by Tilak Smarak Mandir Trust in 1983, to honour the legacy of Lokmanya Tilak. It is presented every year on August 1 – Lokmanya Tilak’s death anniversary. The event has undertaken a political undertone as NCP chief Sharad Pawar is expected to be the chief guest at the award function, as per reports.

If Pawar attends the function, then it would be the first occasion when he would be sharing stage with the prime minister, after a split in NCP was engineered by his nephew Ajit Pawar, who along with a few MLAs, joined the ruling Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde group)-BJP government in Maharashtra on July 2. The presence of both Pawar and Modi on the same stage is likely to create a lot of uneasiness within political circles, especially within the opposition INDIA alliance.

Last week, during the meeting of floor leaders of the INDIA alliance, the scheduled event where Pawar could be present along with the prime minister, was flagged, with many leaders expressing concern over its repercussions on the opposition alliance. Meanwhile, during his day-long visit, PM Modi will flag off metro trains and inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of various development projects in Pune. PM Modi will also inaugurate the waste to energy plant under Pimpri Chinchwad municipal corporation (PCMC).

Developed at a cost of about Rs 300 crore, it will use up about 2.5 lakh MT of waste annually to produce electricity. He will also hand over more than 1,280 houses constructed under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY). PM Modi will also handover more than 2,650 PMAY houses constructed by Pune municipal corporation.

Further, the prime minister will also lay the foundation stone of around 1,190 PMAY houses to be constructed by PCMC and of over 6,400 houses constructed by Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority. IANS

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