BENGALURU: Family members and fans of Sandalwood’s Power Star, Puneeth Rajkumar, lovingly knows as Appu, observed his fifth death anniversary at Kanteerava Studios on Thursday. Fans had organised a mass feeding programme, blood and eye donation camps to mark the occasion.
Puneeth Rajkumar breathed his last due to cardiac arrest on October 29, 2021. At Kanteerava Studio, family members and fans performed special puja at Puneeth’s samadhi. Ashwini Puneeth, Appu’s daughter Druthi, along with Raghavendra Rajkumar’s family offered puja by placing vegetarina and non-vegetarian dishes liked by Appu. Raghavendra Rajkumar became emotional saying, “Appu has not gone anywhere, he is with us. We see our Puneeth in the fans he has earned”.
As part of the death anniversary of Puneeth, various programs were organised by fans at Kanteerava Studio including distribution of notebooks to poor children. Fans arrived from various parts of the state to view Appu memorial.
Appu fans said, “We are still suffering pain after losing our favourite actor. His social service works have been inspiration in our lives.It is five years today since Karnataka Ratna Dr Puneeth Rajkumar left us”, they said.
After Appu’s unexpected demise, to prevent premature deaths due to heart attack, especially deaths of youth, and to ensure emergency treatment within the ‘Golden Hour’ to the patient, ‘Karnataka Ratna Dr. Puneeth Rajkumar Hrudaya Jyothi Yojane’ has been implemented. Currently this scheme is getting very good response, Health Minister Khader had tweeted recently.
Under Hrudaya Jyothi scheme, more than 13,000 lives have been saved, along with free treatment, those dying due to heart attack have been saved. In 31 districts, 85 district and taluk hospitals have been formed as heart attack prevention centres and are functioning. There is a plan to extend this scheme to taluks of many districts of the state, and this ‘Hrudaya Jyothi’ in Appu’s name today is protecting lives of thousands of household”, the minister noted and added that Puneeth’s humanity and service spirit will always remain alive through this scheme.
