Rashtriya Seva Samithi (RASS) was established on 23rd January 1981, and completed 25 years of dedicated, committed service for the community on a small scale firm in Andhra Pradesh. Later it’s extended its activities to the states of Tamil Nadu, Orissa and Karnataka with multifarious activities by covering 3500 villages with different interventions. During the year 2002, in view of the introduction of total coverage of ICDS projects in the country and Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, we were forced to withdraw in 1800 villages. At present, RASS is working in 2500 villages in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Orissa and Karnataka. All these years RASS never celebrated any events as a strategy to minimize the cost of the administration except in the extension activities where awareness and motivation through cultural programmes are needed.
RASS management committee decided to celebrate the silver jubilee to focus attention on its achievements for the sake NGOs, social activists, sarvodaya leaders, government officials for replication of the cost effective model projects in their area of operation and for social audit.
Dr. Nirmala Desh Pande, Sarvodaya Leader ( and a disciple of pujya Acharya Vinobhaji, the famous Bhoodan Leader ) has established Akhil Bharat Rachanatmak Samaj, which is an umbrella organisation for all Gandhian institutions in the country. Dr. G. Muniratnam, General Secretary is also associated with this Akhil Bharat Rachanatmak Samaj and the annual event was celebrated during 1994 in Tirupati in the presence of Dr. Sankar Dayal Sarma ji, the then President of India.
RASS decided to celebrate its silver jubilee along with the annual event of Akhil Bharat Rachanatmak Samaj since its affiliation to ABRS and is working with the guidance of Ms. Nirmala Desh Pandeji. Keeping in view of the above facts, we have celebrated the annual event of Akhil Bharat Rachanatmak Samaj and Silver Jubilee celebrations of RASS on 25-27th of November, 2006. More than 25,000 delegates from all over India belonging to different social activist groups, chief functionaries of NGOs, sarvodaya leaders and intellectuals participated in this event.
Smt. Sonia Gandhiji, Chair Person, UPA, has kindly inaugurated the Silver Jubilee function in the presence of His Excellency, Governor of Andhra Pradesh & Orissa, Mr. Rameswar Thakur. Dr.Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, Hon’ble Chief Minister of A.P., Union Ministers Mr. T. Subbarami Reddy, Minister of Mines, Mr. M.M. Pallam Raju, Minister for State for Defence, Mr. Digvijay Singh, Former Chief Minister of M.P., Smt. Panabaka Lakshmi, Minister for Medical & Health services, Mr. Kesava Rao, President , PCC, Sri Venkaiah Naidu, M.P.,Dr. Usuf Tarigami M.L.A.and other members of various political parties also participated in the silver jubilee. Silver Jubilee function was celebrated in specially erected and decorated pandals at Tarakarama stadium. After the inaugural session, the key note address was delivered by Smt. Sonia Gandhiji. It has been published in the souvenir separately. Mr. Rameswar Thakur, Governor of Andhra Pradesh lauded the activities of NGOs in Andhra Pradesh as a movement and appealed to them to supplement the government efforts to deliver the services to the poorest of the poor in a cost effective manner. Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh congratulated RASS which has started in a humble way in the Rayalaseema region and extended its activities to different states in the country, with commitment and dedication, and to service the humanity. Smt. Sonia Gandhiji has released the achievement souvenir of RASS and congratulated RASS for its commitment and dedicated services to supplement the government efforts. She has also presented the mementos for programme partners of RASS.
The 3 day programme was organised to discuss various issues, women’s legal rights and atrocities on women harassments, total literacy, communal harmony, panchayat raj system etc. Nearly 50 delegates from Pakistan and Nepal also participated. The 3 day session was concluded with great success by adopting a resolution and demanding the Government of India to declare the National Policy on voluntary sector and encourage the voluntary movement by simplifying the cumbersome Grant-in-Aid procedures.
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