Defence Minister Hands Over Podium To Cuttack Student Barnali, A Veer Gatha Super-100 Winner

New Delhi: It was a red-letter day for Odisha girl Barnali Sahu.

The Class XI student of DAV Public School, Cuttack, was presented the privilege of addressing the audience on Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s behalf at the felicitation ceremony of ‘Super-100’ winners of Project Veer Gatha 3.0 here on Thursday.

In a gesture which struck a chord with the assembled students, the Defence Minister handed over the podium to Barnali, one of the Super-100 winners.

After Barnali read out the speech fluently, her effort was appreciated by Rajnath, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and other dignitaries present at the event.

Through Barnali, the Defence Minister said that the country’s youth will play a key role in realising Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of transforming India into ‘Viksit Bharat’ by 2047.

“Youth is the most important asset to shape the future of the country. They will shoulder the responsibility of a developed nation,” Barnali said on the minister’s behalf.

“Project Veer Gatha was an endeavour to introduce the bravehearts of the nation to the youth and take the tales of valour by these young minds. The project was launched with the combined efforts of Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Education to strengthen the values of Nation First,” he opined.

Of the 100 winners, as many as 65 were girl students. Odisha led with 8 girl students, followed by Bihar (7).

Every winner received a cash prize of Rs 10,000, a medal and a certificate.

The Education Minister Pradhan said ‘Veer Gatha’ is a unique programme which inspires the young generation about sacrifices made by the bravehearts.

This third edition of Veer Gatha was held between July 13 and September 30, 2023, with a record 1.36 crore students from 2.42 lakh schools across India sharing their inspirational stories in terms of essays, poems, drawings and multimedia presentations.

After a series of evaluations and assessments at state and district levels, around 3,900 entries were submitted for national level evaluation. The national level evaluation committee, appointed by Ministry of Education, selected the top 100 entries.

A total of 25 winners from each category – class III to V, class VI to VIII, class IX to X and class XI to XII — were selected.

The first two editions saw 25 winners being chosen.

It was on Rajnath’s recommendations that Veer Gatha 3.0 underwent a notable expansion of recognising 100 winners at the national level.