On Goa Revolution Day, Sawant calls for 'digital kranti'
Panaji: Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Saturday paid tribute to all freedom fighters on Goa Revolution Day and said that the time is ripe for "digital kranti" in the coastal state.
Addressing a state-level function on the occasion here, Sawant recalled the sacrifices made by freedom fighters to liberate Goa from the Portuguese rule.
Goa Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai was present as the chief guest for the function. Sawant, Pillai and other leaders paid tributes at the Martyrs' Memorial at Azad Maidan.
Goa Revolution Day is celebrated on June 18 to commemorate the public meeting held at Margao in 1946, during which freedom fighter Ram Manohar Lohia had given a clarion call for liberation.
The time is ripe for a digital kranti (revolution) in the state. Digital revolution should happen in the field of education through the National Education Policy and other initiatives, the chief minister said.
The state government has already amended the syllabus to include coding and robotics as a part of the curriculum for Class 6 students, he said.
Sawant, who also holds the education portfolio, said the academia is working to include the history of Goa as an integral part of History textbooks in state schools.
We believe that history should be told to the younger generation, he said, appealing to teachers to take students to the renovated Aguada Jail complex where freedom fighters were lodged during the pre-liberation period.
The chief minister said that the jail complex has been converted into a museum by the government.
Sawant recalled that Goa was liberated almost 16 years after India's Independence and a satyagraha was carried out in 1955, when 70 satyagrahis were shot dead at the state's border by the Portuguese.
He further said that many satyagrahis who had participated in the 1955 movement never registered themselves as freedom fighters and the state government was in the process of listing them and it will urge the Centre to include them in the list of national freedom fighters.
