President's 13-day south tour concludes

President Pranab Mukherjee was accorded a warm send off at the Hakimpet airport in the city today on the concluding day of his southern sojourn.
Andhra Pradesh Governor E S L Narasimhan, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, Legislative Council Chairman A Chakrapani and several other dignitaries attended the send off programme, an official release said.
Mukherjee had arrived on December 19 for the customary southern sojourn and travelled to Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, among others, from here to participate in different programmes.
He also received a number of delegations, representing mainly the burning issue of division of Andhra Pradesh, during his stay at the Rashtrapati Nilayam here.

Rashtrapati Nilayam is one of the two official retreats of the President, the other being 'The Retreat Building' in Shimla.
It is customary for the President to visit Rashtrapati Nilayam and stay there at least once a year and conduct official business from there.
Located at Bolarum in Secunderabad, the 11-room single- storey building spread over 90 acres, which houses the Rashtrapati Nilayam, was handed over to the President's Secretariat after the erstwhile state of Hyderabad was liberated from the Nizam.