Sonia Gandhi releases brochure for ‘Magic of hands’ painting competition

Congress President and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi endorsed a national painting competition for schools having a unique theme – Magic of Hands—and with total prize money of Rs. 10 lakhs at her residence in New Delhi. While releasing the competition brochure Sonia Gandhi hoped that it would send out a good message to the students to create the awareness about the use of hands.

The painting competition, which has Rs. 5 Lakh for the school of the winner, Rs 20,000 for the winning student and Rs 10,000 each to 49 finalists, is being held in connection with the forthcoming 12th Triennial Congress of International Federation of Societies for Surgery of Hand (IFSSH) and the 9th Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Societies for Hand Therapy (IFSHT), scheduled from March 4 – 8 in Delhi.

In a meeting with office-bearers of the Conference organizing committee, Dr. S. Raja Sabapathy and Dr. Rakesh Khazanchi, Sonia. Gandhi also conveyed her wishes for the event. She also enquired in detail about the competition and its terms & conditions.  “We are happy that the painting competition is getting support from different quarters. Mrs. Gandhi was so keen to learn about the competition with such a unique theme, to which nobody gives due attention,” said Dr. Sabapathy, Head, Dept of Plastic, Hand & Reconstructive Microsurgery, Ganga Hospital, Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. He is the Chairman of the IFSSH-IFSHT 2013 Congress Committee.

Top 50 paintings will be selected by a panel of eminent judges. This will be communicated to the winners by 15th of February. The shortlisted students will then need to attend an authentication camp where they have to reproduce their paintings. These 50 paintings will be published in a book, entitled ‘Magic of Hands’, along with the title and names of the artists and their schools.