President Pranab Mukherjee returns to Delhi after annual Southern sojourn

President Pranab Mukherjee today left for Delhi from here after his 14-day southern sojourn. Governor of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana E S L Narasimhan, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, his cabinet colleagues and several other officials accorded farewell to the President at the Hakimpet Air Force station, a release from Rao's office said. Rao presented Mukherjee an album containing photographs of events attended by the latter during the sojourn, it said. During the sojourn that began on December 18, the President participated in the convocation of Military College of Electronics and Mechanical Engineering (MCEME) and a meeting of the Indian Economic Association here. He inaugurated a 'Veda Pathasala' of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh and offered prayers at the Lord Venkateswara temple at Tirupati. The President also visited Karnataka during the sojourn. It is customary for the President to visit the Rashtrapati Nilayam here at least once a year on a southern sojourn. The Rashtrapati Nilayam is one of the Presidential Retreats in the country. Located at Bolarum, Secunderabad here, the Nilayam was built during the Nizam era and it was handed over to the Government of India after Independence. The single-storey building is located in a 90-acre estate.