Rich tributes paid to Patel, Indira

patna: glowing tributes were paid to sardar vallabhbhai patel on his birth anniversary and former prime minister indira gandhi on her death anniversary at a number of functions organised here on wednesday. at an official function at the patel chowk near the chitkohra railway overbridge, the statue of patel was garlanded by chief minister rabri devi, rjd supremo laloo yadav and many bihar ministers.it was decided to celebrate a vigilance awareness week against terrorism from wednesday. rabri, laloo and former assembly speaker radhanandan jha also garlanded the portrait of indira gandhi at a function in the s k memorial hall. indira gandhi's death anniversary was observed as 'sankalp divas'. the function held at the sadaquat ashram by the bihar pradesh congress committee to pay tributes to both patel and indira gandhi was chaired by bpcc president shakeel ahmad. all-india youth congress president randip singh surjewala was also present on the occasion. the congress leaders, who paid tributes to patel and gandhi, included baleshwar ram, manorama singh, ramashray prasad singh and kripanath pathak. the patel jayanti function at the state office of the rjd was chaired by chandeshwar prasad singh gautam. the function was conducted by rjd's mazdoor cell's state president krishnamurari yadav. the function organised at the state jd(u) office was presided over by the party's state president ramjivan singh, mp. the party's state general secretaries lakshmi sahu and shivprasanna yadav also paid tributes to patel. the function organised under the auspices of the rashtriya vichar manch was attended among others by opposition leader sushil kumar modi. railway minister nitish kumar, who was to inaugurate it, could not do so, as he had to return to delhi. the patel sewa sangh celebrated the day as anti-terrorism day with assembly speaker sadanand singh as chief guest. bihar pradesh nationalist congress party and its youth wing also paid tributes to patel and gandhi. at two separate functions.