New Delhi, May 31 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday paid homage to Mahatma Gandhi and country’s first Home Minister Sardar Vallabhai Patel.
“Remembering India’s greats. At the Prime Minister’s Office in South Block, Narendra Modi pays tributes to Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel,” a PMO tweet said.
Mr Modi also presided over the first meeting of his Cabinet in the South Block office here.
Flanked by new Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on his right and new Home Minister Amit Shah on his left, Mr Modi was in a jovial mood while interacting with his ministerial colleagues.
The Cabinet meeting was attended among others by Ram Vilas Paswan, Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Arvind Sawant – all from NDA constituents.
Before the meeting began, on their arrival at the South Block, several Ministers posed for snaps before the awaiting camerapersons.
The new Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani, who humbled Congress president Rahul Gandhi in his family bastion Amethi, grinned more than once and also shook hands with the photo journalists.
In a first decision of the BJP-led NDA government since it took charge, Prime Minister himself announced that changes were approved in ‘PM’s Scholarship Scheme under the National Defence Fund’.
According to an official release, the major changes includes enhanced scholarships for wards of police personnel martyred in terror or Maoist attacks.
