Our Club Honors H.K. Dua

This was a very special evening this Monday, as our Club felicitated Mr. H.K. Dua, Editor-in-Chief of The Tribune group on his elevation as nominated member of Rajya Sabha. He was accompanied with his wife Ms Adity Dua.
Mr. H.K. Dua, who is also an Honorary Rotarian with our club since 2004 is a highly respected journalist in the country today, whose knack for calling a spade a spade with forthrightness and courage, have endeared everyone, especially the readers of 'The Tribune'.
Introducing Mr Dua, Past Rotary International President Rajendra K. Saboo, remarked that Mr Dua holds a special place in the heart of the readers of 'The Tribune', and more so his "right to write the right" has shown the high ethical standards he had been following as a journalist.
Rtn. Subhash Marriya, Vice President of our Club, who presided over the Monday meeting of the Club (Rtn. Pres. G.S. Lakhmna having been hospitalised), remarked that with Mr Dua's elevation to Rajya Sabha, would make him the "voice of the country".
Mr. Dua lamented the miscarriage of justice and administration that impacts the lives of the people, and the pitiable condition of over 30 crore Indians, who even after the country's freedom, continue to reel under abject poverty, illiteracy, hunger, and disease. And the next generation of this population having been deprived of proper education and employment is left with no choice except to be an easy prey to the communal and criminal forces who recruit them for their wily designs. Their anger, he said, is manifesting itself today in the communal and separatist activities in the country, wasting a vast pool of human energy in senseless violence and arson.
As a journalist, the responsibility of the media is to educate and inform the people, and meet the expectations of the large populace, truthfully and honestly, which is the responsibility of a legislator too, he remarked.
We shall be failing our readers, the society, and the country, if we do not perform our duty as representatives of the people, he affirmed.
What would you do when the Parliament is not in session, is the question he has been asked most often, to which Mr Dua responded very aptly, that considering the extent of the problems that beset our country today, there is no dearth of work which a Parliamentarian need to and can do.
We wish Mr Dua best of luck as he proceeds to take up this new challenge which would stand in good stead of the country.

Bon Voyage to Madhukar and Neeru

A grand Bon Voyage function was hosted by Rotary Club of SAS Nagar at the Diplast Farms at Dappar, on Sunday 3rd January. Despite the heavy fog and chilly weather, over 500 Rotarians from various parts of the District travelled to give their best wishes to DGE Madhukar Malhotra and Ann Neeru. Almost every past RI Officer was present at the function, which was conducted by PDG JPS Sibia. Past Rotary International President Rajendra K. Saboo and Usha Saboo, Rotary International Director Elect Yash Das and Manju were there on the dais.
A large contingent of over 60 Rotarians and their spouses from our Club joined at the function, who moved in a cavalcade from the Rotary House with Past Rotary International President R.K. Saboo in the lead followed by DGE Madhukar and Neeru in the car of PDG Kawal Bedi.
Despite the weather, everyone enjoyed the memorable moment and thanks to PP Ashok Gupta of Diplast who had made elaborate arrangements to host this event.
DG Chetan Aggarwal complimented Rotary Club of Chandigarh for providing an excellent leader in Madhukar and congratulated the couple and wished bon voyage to them. Please go to the temple of learning for more knowledge and enter the school as new entrant and with open mind to learn more about Rotary, he advised.
Past Rotary International President Rajendra K. Saboo spoke about the tradition of setting selfdiscipline and yet continuing with our bonding of friendship with each other. He also warned that future leadership shall be facing the weather like foggy, cold, chilly, windy and should be prepared for that. IT is going to be a platform for those who would take up the responsibilities, and ssaid that the Board of Directors of RI are considering the possibility of stripping the Rotarian of DG or PDG designation if he/she is found wanting in their performance. We are fortunate that in such camaraderie despite this weather would not deviate us from the warmth that we have for our incoming leader. He wished Madhukar Malhotra for being soft, palpable in order to be mounded with the Rotary knowledge and information that he would gain from his experience at Rotary Institute.
DGN Manpreet Gandhok, complimented the couple DGE Madhukar Malhotra and Neeru Malhotra, said that he felt proud of having this unique tradition of giving a send off to the incoming district governor through this bon voyage function which was highly appreciated at the Rotary Institute at Cochin.
RI Director Elect Yash Das said that the bon voyage is a unique tradition of our district, which gives the opportunity to every leader and every Rotarian to come together and showing solidarity with the incoming district governor. The second reason, he said, this acts as a morale booster for the incoming leadership to be ready for the exciting and memorable experience at the Rotary Institute, which would be a life-time experience.

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RCC in Sector 52

Further to the meeting President G.S. Lakhmna and I had yesterday with the Finance Secretary, Mr. Sanjay Kumar, IAS, who has allocated a cluster of 100 houses in Sector 52, at the transit camp set up for the slum dwellers, who have been moved there from various slums in the city, we along with Chairman RCC visited the colony in the morning as well as in the evening.

There are numerous issues that need to be tackled at the Administration level but at our Club level we have decided to set up another RCC there to engage the residents in their own upliftment.

We shall require everyone’s inputs and more importantly, active participation to make this project a success and make a difference in the lives of the people there. We are meeting again on Wednesday, 23rd December at 5pm in Sector 52 colony, and shall request as many Rotarians who can join in to see the state of affairs.

Some of the issues that we have identified include :

a. Assisting small children to get into government schools
b. Encouraging teenagers who are working to get into afternoon schools
c. Provide warm clothings and chappals/shoes for children
d. Micro loan for those who want to set up their own business
e. Adult education for women
f. Vocational training centre for the women
g. Additional vocational training at RVTC in embroidery, tailoring, beautician course, computer course
h. Medical health check up
i. Cleaning up the area and inculcating self-hygiene
j. General awareness about self-hygiene, immunization, etc.
k. Books and stationery for those children willing to learn

We shall appreciate everyone’s participation, and suggestions. Please get in touch with Rtn. Hasan Mejie.

Another RCC planned

Thanks to the endeavours of Pres. G.S. Lakhmna, and Rtn. Hassan Mejie, RCC Chair of Rotary Club of Chandigarh, a preliminary meeting was held in Sector 38West with the residents of the slums rehabilitation colony built by Chandigarh Housing Board. With more than 2000 people resettled in this new housing complex built for the slum dwellers, the Rotary Club identified various challenges the new settlement faces. In order to make it self-sustaining, an RCC has been planned in this resettlement colony to work towards better sanitation, hygiene, upkeep of the parks, beautification, adult literacy, health, creche facilities etc, in which the RCC members would work together.
The preliminary meeting held today with the ladies and other residents, the agenda was set very clearly and hopefully next week another meeting will be held to start the process of empowering the residents for upgrading their lives.
All members are requested to join in with their suggestions to support the RCC. CJ