Union Minister Rattan Lal Kataria on Tuesday wished Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the occasion of his 69th birthday and added that his ministry had a range of programs lined up to celebrate the event.
"Our ministry is distributing artificial limbs to the Divyangs and especially to senior citizens on the occasion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's birthday. We have a range of other programmes lined up for celebrations," Minister of State (MoS) in the Jal Shakti ministry, Kataria, told reporters here.
On his birthday, the Prime Minister is spending the day in his home state Gujarat. He had received a warm welcome upon his arrival in Ahmedabad on Monday night. Several ministers and senior BJP leaders took to social media to wish Prime Minister Modi.
The BJP is celebrating Modi's birthday as 'Seva Saptah' starting September 14. The party has announced that several social initiatives will be undertaken by the party leaders across the nation during this week-long period.
Kataria also said that the prospects of BJP in his home state, Haryana, looked very promising and it would comfortably secure the majority in the upcoming elections.
"The opposition there, Congress and INLD are losing ground. In the previous assembly elections we won 47 seats in the state, This time we will win 75 seats. I also support the National Register of Citizens in Haryana as (Chief Minister) Manohar Lal Khattar said," Kataria said.
Elections in Haryana are due towards the end of the year.
Hailing the move by the Centre on Jammu and Kashmir as a bold one and defending its move to book former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Farooq Abdullah under the Public Safety Act (PSA) he said, "Today the situations we are witnessing in Jammu and Kashmir is due to Farooq Abdullah's father, Sheikh Abdullah. Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah took a bold decision to repeal Article 370."
"If we have restricted the movement of Abdullah it is for the larger good. People of Kashmir are happy. Things will normalize soon," Kataria said.
Reports of Abdullah being booked under the PSA came on Monday when the Supreme Court sought a response from the Centre and Jammu and Kashmir administration on the petition seeking his release.
PSA is a stringent law that enables detention without trial for up to two years.
( With inputs from ANI )