India should showcase its heritage with pride: Modi
New Delhi, July 12 : "India should showcase its great heritage with pride and confidence to the world," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday.
Modi made the remarks while inaugurating Dharohar Bhawan, the new headquarters building of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
Emphasizing the need for people to take pride in the country's history and archaeological heritage, Modi said everyone should take a lead in knowing about local history.
The Prime Minister said the ASI had performed significant work over the last 150 years and each archaeological discovery, painstakingly made by archaeologists over long periods of time, had its own story to tell.
He also talked about the importance of well-trained local tourist guides who are familiar with the history and heritage of their area.
The new headquarters of ASI is equipped with modern facilities including energy efficient lighting and rainwater harvesting. It has a Central Archaeological Library with a collection of about 1.5 lakh books and journals.
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TMC MLA Humayun Kabir apologises for claiming 'coterie' influencing Mamata's decisions
Kolkata (PTI): Trinamool Congress MLA Humayun Kabir has apologised to the party's leadership for his recent comment that a "coterie" was influencing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's key decisions.
Kabir, the MLA of Bharatpur in West Bengal's Murshidabad district, expressed his apology on Friday in reply to a show cause notice issued by the party's disciplinary committee.
"Yes, I have sent a reply. I will certainly follow party discipline. But I think being a person from the rural belt, not conversant with the ways of the city, I faced this situation for speaking my mind. However, I had not said anything against my party or its leadership," he told reporters.
"Our CM epitomises the spirit of 'Maa-Mati-Manush' and being a person of the grassroots level, I always stay rooted to the ground. Maybe I should have been more careful about my way of expressing," he said.
A senior member of the TMC's legislative disciplinary committee said the reply to the show cause letter was received, and a decision on it will be communicated soon.
Kabir, however, said some other TMC MPs had on earlier occasions made comments against party colleagues but were not censured.
On Thursday, he met the CM in the assembly's lobby where she had asked him to reply to the show-cause notice first.
On November 26, Kabir had said a coterie within the party was taking certain decisions to cement their position and was influencing the CM's key decisions for their short-term gains.
He had said this a day after the TMC national executive meeting where the party had categorically asked its leaders not to make comments in public against any internal decision and formed disciplinary committees at different levels.
Kabir had earlier advocated for giving more responsibility to TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, reiterating that the Diamond Harbour MP was undoubtedly the number two in the party's hierarchy and those trying to undermine his influence would not succeed.
