Kumaraswami Kamaraj Birthday ;

0 0 Thursday, 15 July 2021

Kumaraswami Kamaraj Birthday ;

Kumaraswami Kamaraj 15 July 1903– 2 October 1975 , popularly known as Kamarajar was an Indian independence activist and politician who served as the Chief Minister of Madras State Tamil Nadu from 13 April 1954 to 2 October 1963. He was the founder and the president of the Indian National Congress Organisation, widely acknowledged as the "Kingmaker" in Indian politics during the 1960s.

He also served as the president of the Indian National Congress for two terms i.e. four years between 1964–1967 and was responsible for the elevation of Lal Bahadur Shastri to the position of Prime Minister of India after Nehru's death and Indira Gandhi after Shastri's death. He was the Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha during 1952–1954 and 1969–1975.

He was known for his simplicity and integrity. He played a major role in developing the infrastructure of the Madras state and worked to improve the quality of life of the needy and the disadvantaged.

On 13 April 1954, Kamaraj became the Chief Minister of Madras Province. To everyone's surprise, Kamaraj nominated C. Subramaniam and M. Bhakthavatsalam, who had contested his leadership, to the newly formed cabinet.

As Chief Minister, Kamaraj removed the family vocation based Hereditary Education Policy introduced by Rajaji. The State made immense strides in education and trade. New schools were opened, so that poor rural students had to walk no more than three kilometres to their nearest school. Better facilities were added to existing ones. No village remained without a primary school and no panchayat without a high school. Kamaraj strived to eradicate illiteracy by introducing free and compulsory education up to the eleventh standard.

He introduced the Midday Meal Scheme to provide at least one meal per day to the lakhs of poor school children. Later it was expanded to four more schools. This was the precursor to the free noon meal schemes introduced by K. Kamaraj in 1960's and expanded by M. G. Ramachandran in the 1980s.[citation needed]. He introduced free school uniforms to weed out caste, creed and class distinctions among young minds.