Honoured — Real life heroes who’ve made a difference

Gurvinder Singh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, September 17

When Amir Hussain lost his arms during an accident at the sawmill, people told his parents to poison him as he would be nothing but a burden on them.

But he did not lose heart and his passion for cricket helped him in becoming self-dependent. Today, he is part of the Indian team for para cricketers and the captain of Jammu and Kashmir para cricket team. He holds the bat with his neck and shoulder and the ball between his toes.

For this indomitable spirit, he was honoured by Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu and Punjab governor VP Singh Badnore at an award function organised by the Noble Foundation today.

Hussain and several other inspiring personalities who are serving the society in different ways were honoured today. Local Bodies, Culture and Tourism Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu said the government was dedicated to uplift the people of the state. He said for the first time in the state, Cultural Parliament was being set up, which would be headed by Punjab Arts Council Chief Surjit Patar. Here people would work together to connect the youth with their rich culture and set up cultural centres in every village.

Stopping the ‘cancer train’

Kulwant Singh Dhaliwal from Britain, who has been working in Punjab to stop the spread of cancer in the state, was also honoured during a function. He has set up World Cancer Care Charitable Society and has been carrying out camps in villages throughout the state. He said his organisation has conducted camps in more than 8,000 villages of the state, adding that the government was not doing enough to make health facilities available to people. He said this was forcing people of Punjab to visit Rajasthan for treatment. He said water, soil and air was getting polluted as people seem to have forgotten the message of the Sikh Gurus. He said he was determined to stop the spread of cancer in the state. “I promise that I will continue to work till cancer is completely eradicated,” he said. He appealed to all to change the direction of donation towards clean water, education and health facilities.

Adopt farmers, says ‘Medicine Baba’ from UP

Omkar Nath Sharma, known as Medicine Baba from UP, collects unused medicines and distributes it to the poor for free. He said farmers were dying because of financial burden and debt. One of the solutions can be to adopt them, he said, adding that every family should adopt a farmer not only to extend help but purchase things directly from them. This way, people adopting them would not only get healthy produce, but it would become a good source of income to farmers as well.

Saving lives, his mission

Sonu Sethi, who runs a dhaba in Zirakpur, saw two bikers dying in front of his dhaba after a truck crushed them. He stopped commuters on the way asking for help but nobody came forward. After suffering for 20 minutes in agony, both of them died and Sonu felt helpless. It was then that he decided to purchase an ambulance, despite meagre means, to save the lives of people who suffer during road accidents. “I proudly say that the ambulance has helped over 6,000 accident victims and saved 250 lives,” he said.

Several other philanthropists were honoured on the occasion, including Dr Jagtar Singh, an Indian Revenue

 Services officer and an environmentalist, who has helped in planting over 2 lakh trees; Satbir Singh Dhillon from Hisar, who has been conducting yoga and working for the education of girls; Sardara Singh from Amritsar working for the cause of education; Praveen Singh Rathore, a freelance filmmaker, who made short films on social issues and worked for the revival of Rajasthani music; Yatish Sharma, an optometrist from Rajasthan, who carried out free eye check-up camps; Dr Rajinder Singh, who runs Sahaita, an NGO, to support education; Satya Prakash Sharma from Himachal Pradesh, whose son Arun Sharma came to receive the award for their contribution for education of children; dentist Sanjeev Kamboj, who carries out blood donation camps, bone marrow donation awareness camps; Jagdev Singh Boparai and Niket Parik, a young skater, who teaches skating to the poor. 

His focus is on health, education of orphans, widows

Businessman and philanthropist SP Singh Oberoi, who runs Sarbat da Bhala Charitable Trust, said education and health are state’s priority areas. He said it was ironical that even 5 per cent of 7.5 per cent differently-abled children, including the visually impaired, were not getting education facilities. He said his organisation would now provide education to orphan children in different parts of the state, including Patiala and in Himachal Pradesh as well.