Tributes paid to 1965 war hero Bhupinder Singh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, September 19

Tributes were paid to Major Bhupinder Singh, who sacrificed his life in the 1965 Indo-Pak war, during an event to mark his death anniversary here today.

Adviser to CM, Lt Gen (Retd) Tajinder Singh Shergill, paid tributes to the martyr who was posthumously bestowed with the Maha Vir Chakra. A statue of Major Bhupinder Singh has been installed near Bharat Nagar Chowk here.

Shergill recalled the gallantry deeds of the martyrs. He said it was the need of the hour to organise such events so as to keep our younger generations abreast about the heroic deeds of such martyrs.

When asked about the statue having been shifted twice, he said an appropriate place would be earmarked for installing the statue with honour.

The ex-servicemen also remembered IAF Marshal Arjan Singh and observed two-minute silence in his memory. “Though we don’t have uniform on, we’re still warriors at heart,” Lt Gen Shergill said.

Ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu thanked the Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh for giving due recognition and honor to the ex-servicemen by appointing Lieutenant Shergill as his Senior Advisor. He also announced that he would provide the requisite funds for the proper upkeep of this memorial.

Guardians of Governance will bring transparency: Adviser to CM 

Ludhiana: The state government’s ‘Guardians of Governance’ scheme will bring transparency in the functioning of the government and ensure the implementation of the schemes effectively. This was stated by Senior Adviser to the Punjab Chief Minister, Lieutenant General (Retd) TS Shergill. He said ex-servicemen from across the state would be entrusted with this work to ensure effective implementation of the state government policies. 

He said the state government was taking several initiatives to ensure the well being of every strata of society. He said regular and effective monitoring of the government schemes was must, for which ‘Guardians of Governance’ would play an instrumental role.

“Only around 15 paise of the one rupee released from the state government reaches the beneficiaries. The guardians will ensure that at least 90 paise reaches the beneficiaries,” he said. “These guardians will not be employees, but volunteers,” he said. 

He said they envisioned that there should be at least one “guardian” in every village of the state. He said the process for enrolling around 13,000 ex-servicemen had already been started and in the first phase this scheme would be implemented in Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Tarn Taran and Barnala. 

Shergill said the guardians would act as eyes, ears and brain of the state government. He said that the guardians would be equipped with smart phones from where they would submit regular reports on various projects from every village, ward, town and city of the state. He said action on the reports would be taken according to the stipulated norms. tns