Modi’s show keeps HRD officials on toes

Though the programme was conceptualised by the Prime Minister’s Office, the KVS was tasked to train students, who were selected to ask questions to the PM.

According to sources, apart from Irani, the five officials who worked through to make the event a grand success were – Rina Ray, additional secretary in the ministry; KVS Commissioner Santosh Kumar Mall; additional commissioner (administration) GK Srivastava; additional commissioner (academics) UN <g data-gr-id="41">Khaware</g> and joint commissioner (academics) V Vijayalakshmi.

Ray, who monitored the overall preparation in tandem with the PMO, has spent several sleepless nights since the names of students were finalised in the last week of August, while KVS commissioner did it all to accomplish the exceptional challenge. 

Ray took the last round of the venue, Manekshaw Centre, at 12 am, and remained in touch with KVS Commissioner the whole night.

Mall, a 1997-batch Bihar cadre IAS officer, was the nodal conduit between the PMO and the HRD 

Ministry. To keep tabs on the event, Mall created a WhatsApp group – Teacher’s Day 10, where he would watch videos on the achievements and background of 10 students.

“As the students were selected just six days before the final show, it was a herculean task for the KVS to collect their macro and micro details. KVS, with the help of Doordarshan, managed to get the video footage of students and teachers at KVS were tasked to gather comprehensive details about them,” an HRD official said.

“The KVS commissioner finalised video clips of all students, after viewing it on WhatsApp around <g data-gr-id="39">3am</g> on Friday.   Mall noticed an error in the video clip of Sarthak Bhardwaj, <g data-gr-id="37">student</g> from Dehradun, around <g data-gr-id="38">1am</g> and got it rectified,” the official said.

<g data-gr-id="31">Khaware</g> and Vijayalakshmi, along with other officials, spent their nights at KVS headquarters and kept updating their seniors.

 “We are relaxed as the programme concluded successfully. We were a little worried about the students, who were managing the stage, as they are not used to it, but thankfully, it all went well. All anchors on stage were from different central schools, which show that KV students are very talented.  They have done a commendable job. The Prime Minister has also applauded their efforts,” a senior KVS official said.

The students who asked questions to the Prime Minister are – Malavath Poorna (Telangana), Nemdeiching Shelly Kipgen (Manipur), Sarthak Bhardwaj (Uttarakhand), Soniya Yellapa Patil from Goa, Team Pentagon (Karnataka), Anmol Kabra (Bihar), K <g data-gr-id="42">Visalini</g> (Tamil Nadu), <g data-gr-id="43">Atmik</g> <g data-gr-id="44">Ajoy</g> (Karnataka), Anshika <g data-gr-id="45">Minz</g> (Jharkhand) and Rabia Nazir (J&K).