PU to name shooting range after Capt Vikram Batra

Tribune News Service

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Chandigarh, July 1

Panjab University, Chandigarh, is all set to name its shooting range as Captain Vikram Batra, PVC, Shooting Range on July 7. Batra, a PU alumnus, made the supreme sacrifice by laying down his life for the country in the 1999 Kargil war.

 The syndicate will ratify the recommendations of vice-chancellor Prof Arun Kumar Grover in this regard and Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Badal will be present at the campus on July 7. GL Batra, who wrote a letter to PU requesting to name any hostel, building, block or auditorium in his son's memory, told Chandigarh Tribune over phone, "Vikram was a student of MA (English) here and had fond memories of the university. It is a good way to remember a brave soldier. Panjab University's student unions have also been demanding it." 

Batra, who was posthumously awarded Param Vir Chakra, had stayed in Hostel No. 1 at the PU campus. He was pursuing MA English in 1995-96 session after completing his BSc from DAV College, Sector 10. 

"It feels good that a shooting range has been named after him as he used to be very a good shooter. It will inspire the youth of the university. This what a society should do to remember the martyr," the proud father, a native of Palampur in Kangra district, said.

The Punjab minister along with Vikram's twin brother had visited PU on June 25 and suggested a suitable building in PU to be named after the braveheart. 

In the syndicate agenda, a communication by Grover, read, "It is my judgement that the PU shooting range is a suitable place to be named as Captain Vikram Batra, PVC, Shooting Range. July 7 is the day on which he had sacrificed his life. Let it be done on July 7, 2018."