Dallas (Texas), USA: Telangana Development Forum (TDF) USA is going places these days, literally! With TDF Global Summit (Telangana Mahasabhalu) in Washington D.C in July-August looming large, the various city chapters are on a formalizing or consolidation mode.
The Dallas Chapter, inarguably the largest and the most vibrant of them all, successfully organized a Meet & Greet program involving the visiting MLA from Yella Reddy Constituency (Nizamabad), Enugu Ravinder Reddy, Telangana balladeer, Ande Sri and TDF-USA President Vishweshwar Kalavala, here last week.
On this occasion, Ravinder Reddy, who was the chief guest, remembered the martyrs of the Telangana struggle. He lauded the efforts of TDF during the struggle and has called upon the TDF leadership to keep up with its goal of development of Telangana. He extended the support of his government for TDF in carrying out its developmental activities in the State.
The legislator also hoped that Mission Kakatiya, aimed at reviving the tanks and lakes in rural Telangana, with a funding of Rs. 30,000 Crores, would address the irrigation woes of our farmers to a large extent and end the drought.
He also urged the NRIs to invest in the State of Telangana. He said the Chief Minister’s chasing cell will expedite the bureaucratic process in getting approvals for establishing industries.
Significantly, the event saw a whopping $80,000 being raised in a couple of hours for various developmental projects in Telangana to be undertaken by TDF with support from Telangana Government.
Vishweshwar, who presided over the function, commended the spirit of the local Telangana community and made a compelling case for Telanganites to be more actively involved in the development of Telangana. He unveiled his vision of bringing all Telangana NRIs on TDF platform “as we have an established processes.”
He emphasized, in a characteristically fluid manner, the need for all NRI Telanganites to join hands together and aid in the development of Telangana. In a gripping speech that lasted 30 minutes, he pronounced that TDF aim is to support any developmental activities, individual projects aimed at serving the economically weaker sections of the society, fostering entrepreneurship, mentoring young talent through educational and career guidance and encouraging women’s involvement in the development of the society.
The meeting was attended by more than 300 people. It started with a group of children singing the Telangana Anthem “Jaya jayahe Telangana”, written by Ande Sri, who was present here as the special guest. Ande Sri lauded the children for the melody and passion with which they sang.
He held the audience spellbound with his poetic fluency and transported them through the literary heritage of Telangana and the princely glory of the Kings of the Kakatiya Kingdom, the valor of Rani Rudrama Devi and the architectural wonder of Golconda Fort through his songs.
Laxman Enugu, Vice President of TDF, commended the efforts of Dallas Chapter of TDF for its support through the phase of struggle for statehood and called upon them to continue the spirit in the development phase.
The Dallas event clearly spurred the TDF chief, who, in just over one month, visited Toronto (Canada), Raleigh (North Carolina), Austin, Houston (both Texas) and Jacksonville (Florida) and committed to market the TDF brand in the days to come.
The success of the Dallas meet was largely due to the efforts of over 25 volunteers who had been diligently working since December 2014. They are Praveen Billa, Ashok Kondala, Madhavi SunkiReddy, Ganga Devara, Indira Pancherupula, Srini Gangadhara, Sudhakar Kalasani, Anand Kathroju, Shiva Mateti, Srini Vemula and Karan Poreddy. The Dallas Chapter Team was ably supported by TDF Board of Trustees namely Ajay Reddy Eleti, Vijay Pitta and Ravishankar Patel and National Standing Committee members Raghuveer Bandaru, Venu Bhagyanagar, Dushant Reddy, Sharadas Singireddy, Upender Telugu, Vikram Jangam, Sudha Pisati and Ram Annadi.
Praveen Billa, the President, TDF Dallas Chapter, proposed a vote of thanks.
