Alumni urge govt to set up Sahir Ludhianvi Chair at SCD college on birth anniv

The alumni of SCD Government College here on Saturday urged the Punjab Government to institute a Sahir Ludhianvi Research Chair at the college to carry forward the legacy of the progressive and humanistic poet in the minds of the coming generations on the same pattern as has been rightly done to honour Surjit Patar, an eminent Punjabi poet at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) in Ludhiana.

The demand was put forward by the alumni, who assembled at Sahir Auditorium in numbers to celebrate the poet’s birth anniversary as well as International Women’s Day.

Brij Bhushan Goyal, organising secretary of the association, and Sagar Sialloti, an eminent poet, also demanded the college be renamed Sahir College Road as it was earlier in the 1980s.

On the occasion, Prof PD Gupta recited Sahir’s poetry, and OP Verma spoke about the high traditions of the alma mater in spreading women’s education.

Retired IAS officer Gurloveleen Singh, an alumnus, delivered an address on Sahir Ludhianvi’s progressive poetry. He said women continued to excel despite various oppositions and challenges. He also recited Mangati (beggar), an emotionally stirring poem.

On the demand of the alumni, the college authorities honoured Kamal Dalal, the first PCS woman officer from Punjab, who had studied here in 1964.