UV Exclusive: Dr Veerendra Heggade opens up about being nominated to the Rajya Sabha

Our focus has been to direct the charitable donations received to the deserving individuals, thereby, ensuring its optimal utilization, said Dr. D Veerendra Heggade.

Dr Heggade gave an exclusive interview to Udayavani, sharing his thoughts after being nominated to the Rajya Sabha.

The Dharmadhikari of the Shri Kshetra Dharmasthala said that the experiments in religious and charitable works have borne fruit. ” We have redefined social service through our experiments in rural development, self-employment training,” he said.

“My aim is to make people aware of the various government benefit schemes. Many people have no knowledge of the schemes. We will reach out to people and educate them about these schemes that are beneficial to them. This will be done not just in our district or state but I plan to do this in other states as well,” he said.

He said that he does not differentiate between public and religious service. “I will continue to do my services in the future as well. The only difference now is that in the past I had a small canvas to develop my painting but now I can do so on a larger canvas,” he added.

Commenting on the query about whether the social service model of Dharmasthala will be spread to the entire country, Dr Heggade said that the goal of the organization is to ensure the benefits of government programs reach the citizens in need. “I always think about how best to reach the unreached and this not only applies to our (Karnataka) state but also relevant to the entire nation,” he said.

When asked about how he would go about influencing a ‘Modern India’ as a member of Rajya Sabha, he said that he was a novice when it comes to the working of the upper house of the parliament. “I can’t gove any assurances now. If I do, it may seem like self-praise, or like assurances of a politician,” he said and added that proposing implementable, practical solutions after due consideration is apt.

To a question about whether he has received an invitation from Prime Minister to visit New Delhi, Dr. Heggade said that he has not received any official communication yet.