The yearlong centenary celebrations of former Chief Minister N.T. Rama Rao began to coincide with his birth anniversary on Saturday.
Leaders across parties, mainly those who deserted Telugu Desam to join the TRS and Congress, paid floral tributes at NTR ghat here and his statues elsewhere in the State.
The family of NTR led by former Union Minister D. Purandeswari was among the first to arrive at the NTR ghat. Thereafter, a stream of leaders arrived and spoke how NTR shaped their political career. Former Minister Motkupalli Narasimhulu even said NTR had performed his marriage as he had no money. Former Minister and Congress leader Nagam Janardhan Reddy blamed the TRS government for neglecting the NTR memorial at the ghat.
Ms. Purandeswari said on the occasion that her family was in touch with RBI to bring out a commemorative ₹100 coin with a picture of NTR. She said the centenary celebrations will take place once in a month at 12 centres in AP and Telangana. They will start from Tirupati on June 4. Two mega events will be held at Vijayawada and Hyderabad where stars who were contemporaries of NTR in films and political leaders of his time will be felicitated.
She announced the constitution of a committee comprising her brothers Balakrishna and Ramakrishna to oversee the conduct of the celebrations. Saturda’s programme at NTR ghat commenced with a short film on NTR titled `NTR, a person par excellence’.
