Rooted to his native village, Army officer sends truckload of supplies

A Delhi-based Army officer Col Arjun Singh Ghumman (retd) has sent a truckload of essential supplies to his native village of Rattar Chattar falling in the flood-ravaged Dera Baba Nanak subdivision of Gurdaspur district.

Colonel Ghumman was helped in his endeavour by a section of lawyers of the Delhi High Court. The village is located near the International Border (IB).

The officer had left his village several decades ago. However, his ties to it were so strong that he did not forget his village when it was in distress.

The Ravi river flows through Dera Baba Nanak and it has overflowed from a number of points leading to the floods. According to official reports, Dinanagar and Dera Baba Nanak are two of the worst-affected areas in Gurdaspur district.

The truck, carrying eatables, cooking oil and hundreds of tarpaulins and blankets, arrived in the village this morning under the supervision of Assistant Agriculture Engineer Sanjeev Bhadrwaj.

SDM Dr Aaditya Sharma supervised the distribution of the supplies. “The Ravi has created mayhem in Dera Baba Nanak. It has devastated scores of villages and has left people homeless. This gesture on the part of Colonel Ghumman is worth appreciation. Villages change, towns change, they grow or diminish, but for people like Colonel Ghumman, they are the same as they left them,” said the SDM.