Panchayat Raj Minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao today visited former MLC and noted educationist Chukka Ramaiah in the city.
The minister had called on Ramaiah to wish him on his 97th birthday (Ramaiah was born in 1925).
Generations of Hyderabad students who took MPC in Intermediate know Ramaiah for his IIT-JEE coaching institute, which saw extraordinary success in the pre-Chaitanya, pre-Narayana days - the 1980s and 1990s.
He touched the feet of the former MLC on the occasion, and felicitated him and offered him a box of sweets.
The minister then lauded the services of Ramaiah for the state and its people.
Narrating the contributions of the nonagenarian, the minister said that Ramaiah, a native of Gudur in Jangaon district to which he himself belonged, was a remarkable educationist who first retired as principal of the famed AP Residential School in Nagarjuna Sagar and later started a coaching institute for the feared IIT-JEE, which saw jaw-dropping success in its peak years.
Ramaiah had also fought against landlords' oppression of serfs, the Nizam rule and the Razakars' atrocities, and endured jail terms, Errabelli said, and was honoured by the AP government with a seat in the upper house in 2007.
The minister discussed development in the Palakurty segment and the state politics briefly with Ramaiah, and left wishing him good health.