New Delhi, Jul 29 (PTI) Union Minister Nitin Gadkari was on Tuesday conferred with the Chintamanrao Deshmukh National Award for public service here.
NCP-SP supremo Sharad Pawar handed over the award, instituted by Pune-based NGO Sarhad, to Gadkari and praised the Union minister for developing a network of highways across the country.
Pawar praised Gadkari for his blunt talk and the knack of getting difficult projects implemented. He also highlighted the minister’s popularity among members of Parliament across party lines.
Pawar said a large number of MPs have expressed great confidence in Gadkari’s abilities to execute projects and develop a road network in the country.
The NCP-SP supremo said Gadkari’s popularity among MPs stems from the fact that he does not discriminate against anyone along party lines and genuinely believes that good roads are a prerequisite for a nation to prosper.
Deshmukh, who hailed from Maharashtra, was the first Indian to be appointed as the governor of the Reserve Bank of India in 1943 and also served as the finance minister from 1950 to 1956.
He had famously quit as the finance minister over the Union government’s plans to bifurcate the then state of Bombay into Gujarat and Maharashtra and to designate Mumbai as a union territory.
Deshmukh also served as the chairman of the University Grants Commission and as the vice chancellor of Delhi University. He died in 1982.
The first Chintamanrao Deshmukh National Award was conferred on former diplomat Dyaneshwar Mulay. PTI SKU DIV DIV
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