Kharar youth loses limbs in French hospital; parents denied visa

Shashi Pal Jain

Kharar, July 24

The parents of Amrinder Singh (27), who reside in the nearby Simbal Majra village, are spending sleepless nights to meet their son in France, whose feet and hands had to be amputated at a hospital in Paris due to a disease. The French Embassy in New Delhi has rejected their 

visa application.

Avtar Singh and his wife Amarjeet Kaur told this correspondent that their son Amrinder Singh, who has a four-year-old girl and a one-and-a-half-year-old boy, was working in France. He left India about three years ago and started working as an electrician there. On June 23, he returned home and told his wife Harpreet Kaur that he was not feeling well. During the night, he had high temperature and was admitted to a hospital the next day. He became unconscious and remained in that state for 22 days. As his condition was worsening, doctors asked them to admit him to a big hospital in Paris. An NGO helped them. His treatment was started at a hospital in Paris, but his feet and hands had to be amputated in the hospital. He is struggling for life in the hospital.

On learning about their son’s condition, the parents wanted to go to Paris and applied for a visa.  They appeared for an interview in the French Embassy in Delhi on June 30, but their application was rejected on the grounds that “the information submitted regarding the justification for the purpose and conditions of the intended stay is not reliable and their intention to leave the territory of the member states before the expiry of the visa cannot be ascertained”.

The parents are now distraught. They want to see their ailing son in France. They have appealed to the Chief Minister of Punjab and the Union External Affairs Minister to help them get a visa.

Mohali MLA assures hapless family of help

Mohali: Local Congress MLA Balbir Singh Sidhu has assured the hapless family that he will take up the matter with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and the Punjab Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh.

 “I have assured them that the state government will extend all possible help to Amrinder’s family and to his parents to get a visa to France,” said Sidhu.

Village sarpanch Sarabjit Singh said residents and panchayat members would extend all kind of help to the family. “We all are worried about Amrinder Singh, whose limbs have been amputated by doctors in Paris. We don’t know much about the Amrinder’s disease,” said Sarabjit Singh.

The entire village is praying for the recovery of Amrinder Singh.— TNS

Sushma Swaraj offers help 

• n New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, known for using Twitter extensively to aid distressed Indians abroad, on Monday assured help to an Indian national hospitalised in France with blood infection.
• n “Maine @Indian_Embassy in France se kaha hai ki wo hospital mein aapke bete ki poori madad kare (I have asked the Indian Embassy in France to ask the hospital to extend all help to him),” Sushma Swaraj tweeted in response to a plea by Amrinder Singh’s family, brought to her notice by Akali Dal leader and Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee general secretary Manjinder S Sirsa. IANS