Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Minister of Steel Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday met eminent poet and Padma Bhushan awardee Ramakanta Rath at his residence in Bhubaneswar as part of the BJP's nationwide campaign 'Sampark and Janjagran Abhiyaan'. This campaign aims to gain people's support and make people aware about the benefits of abrogating Article 370 and 35A. The Modi government's leaders will be holding meetings across the country. Ramakanta Rath is a modernist poet, renowned for writing poems in Odia.

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Sampark and Janjagran Abhiyaan

In a tweet, Pradhan said that he met poet Ramakanta Rath as part of BJP's awarness campaign to gain support regarding the advantages of revoking Article 370 and 35A. According to a news agency, the Minister inaugurated Seva Saptah Karyakram, to mark Prime Minister Narendra Modi's birthday on September 17. He took an oath and urged peole to discard single-use plastic for a cleaner environment.

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Gujarat schools to teach about Article 370

Gujarat plans to teach its students about Article 370, which will cover the recent changes brought in with abrogating Jammu & Kashmir's special status, a unique way to mark PM Modi's birthday. A circular was sent out by local District Education Officers (DEO) of Ahmedabad, Vadodara, and Surat to around 3,000 local schools to conduct educational sessions with students on the recent abrogation of Article 370.

The DEO office reportedly said, "Our PM believes that rather than celebrating him as a person, it is a better way to dedicate the day to educate the coming generation about the recent changes in Jammu and Kashmir. This way, the students will understand the situation better and know about the history of the state as well."

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Article 370 and 35A nullification row

The Modi government ended Jammu & Kashmir's special status on August 5 by revoking Article 370, bifurcating the state into two union territories - Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. Article 35A was also scrapped which allows the Jammu and Kashmir legislature to define who are permanent residents of the state. After the implementation, Kashmir was under a state-wide lockdown, phone, internet being disconnected, security tightened, and schools remaining closed. Now, the restrictions have been lifted, according to reports.

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(With ANI inputs)