Sukhjit Gill is Rotary Club Chandigarh’s new President

Rotary Honours Justice Rajiv Sharma by conferring Paul Harris Fellowship

Hon'ble Mr Justice Rajiv Sharma of Punjab and Haryana High Court

Chandigarh, 6^th July:  Rotary Club of Chandigarh installed its new President Rtn Sukhjit Singh Gill and Team for 2020-21 here today through a virtual meeting in the presence of various dignitaries and prominent Rotarians from District 3080.

Rtn Sukhjit Singh Gill, who is a financial consultant took the collar of presidentship from his predecessor Rtn Surinder Pal Kaur, an ex-IRS officer.

Mr Justice Rajiv Sharma  of Punjab and Haryan High Court was the Chief Guest and District Governor Ramesh Bajaj was the Guest of Honour.

President Sukhjit Singh Gill took over the reins of the Club.
Seen with him is his wife Dr Kamaljit Kaur

Outgoing president Surinder Pal Kaur informed that the club has spent nearly Rs.1.8 crores including Rs.55 lakh during the Covid on providing medical supplies to PGI, GMCH32 and General Hospital Sector 16, besides extensively providing dry ration and prepared food to the doctors, migrant labour.

The club was able to undertake 16 children for heart surgeries under club’s Heartline project, besides various initiatives in the village Saketri, and throughout the lockdown the Club continued to meet regularly.  

On this occasion, Mr Justice Rajiv Sharma was conferred the Paul Harris Fellowship for his contribution to the environment,  by the Club contributing USD1000 to the Rotary Foundation.

Speaking on the occasion the chief guest who himself is a great environmentalist and known as ‘green judge’, Justice Rajiv Sharma said that everyone should be concerned and caring about our environment beyond our own homes.  He said global warming and other environmental destruction would lead to crisis for our earth and humanity.

He advised we must start living in harmony with nature, and respect environment and lamented the growing disharmony being caused by our dependency on technology especially the mobile phones. 

Rtn Sukhjit Gill shared the roadmap for the club during 2020-21 and said that the club shall continue to impact lives through blood donation camps, promote the flagship project with free heart surgeries through its partner hospitals, sensitise school children in menstrual hygiene and sanitation, launch of health education centre for the children of the city, and health of women and children.

Rotary Vidya Sadan in Bapu Dham shall be strengthened further to educate drop-out girls, and provide crèche facility for the daily wagers, and clubfoot treatment to children in GMCH32.

District Governor Ramesh Bajaj, guest of honour, stated that despite the continued lockdown the Club shall continue to reach out to the community come what may. Sharing success mantra with the new team, Ramesh Bajaj asked to follow ‘BMW’ i.e. prayer, Bless My Wisdom, Bless My Work,  Bless My Words, and Burn My Worries.  He advised the leadership to put up three factories for success, one, of Ice factory to stay cool; sugar factory to speak sweetly; and the third, love factory to instill compassion and love in your heart.

Earlier former world president of Rotary International, Rajendra K Saboo said that the leadership inRotary changes on 1^st July and he congratulated outgoing president Surinder Pal Kaur for her stellar achievements during challenging times and complimented the incoming team for their plans.

Assisting President Sukhjit Singh Gill in the team 2020-21 are Vice President Praveen Agarwal,  Secretary Gurvinder Saggu; Baldev Garg, Treasurer; Sonia Dhillon, Jt Secy; Dinesh Dua director club service, Vinod Kapoor, Director Vocational Service; Lalita Grover, Director Community Service; Gurmeet Chawla; Director International Service; Baldev Aggarwal Director Youth Service; Kulbir Dogra, Sergeant-at-Arms; PRID Rajendra Saboo, PDG Kawal Bedi, PDG Madhukar Malhotra, PDG Praveen Chander Goyal.

Those who joined the meeting included past district governors Ranjit Bhatia, Madhukar Malhotra, Yoginder Dewan, Manmohan Singh, Praveen Goyal,  Jitendra Dhingra,  district governor elect Ajay Madan, Usha Saboo, Inner Wheel President Komal Gupta, and Rotaractors amongst others with Rtn Dinesh Dua and Rtn Suditi Jindal moderating the session.

Past President Neena Singh recited the mool mantra of Japji while Rtn Ruchi Singla recited the Gayatri Mantra as invocations at the beginning of the meeting.

The Club was chartered on 13 May 1958 and has since grown with the city launching various projects for the community.

Rotary Club delivers dry ration in Kachhi Colony

Chandigarh, 22 April:  Rotary Club of Chandigarh delivered 1,400 dry ration bags in Kachhi Colony in village Dhanas.

Club President Surinder Pal Kaur informed that senior Rotarian Jatinder Kapur along with two young Rotaractors, Abhishek and Bhupinder, accompanied the SDM Central Shri Nazuk Kumar, and supervised the distribution of the dry ration.

 “This is the most equitable distribution system that Administration is using marking each house with house number, number of families and number.of souls living there, so that deserving families get the ration," informed Rtn Jatinder Kapur.

Dry Ration for families in sealed village Faidan from Rotarians

Chandigarh, 9 April:  Rotary Club of Chandigarh has volunteered to provide 1000 bags of dry ration after every five days, to familes inside village Faidan which was recently sealed down in the city, informed President Rotary Club Chandigarh Surinder Pal Kaur.

The supplies were handed over today to the Administration by President Surinder Pal Kaur, accompanied by past presidents Rtn Anil Khanna, Rtn Baldev Aggarwal, and Rtn Pankaj Khanna.

Deputy Commissioner Mandip Singh Brar commended the Rotarians for their continued support to the Administration in these challenging times.

Former world President of Rotary International Rajendra K Saboo informed that village Faidan located adjacent to Sector 48 which was sealed, is inhabited by nearly 3700 families (19,000 residents) who need ration supplies, and Rotary Club shall be providing 3,000 dry ration bags over a period of three weeks, i.e. 1000 bags every week.  

Each bag contains one week supply of 5kg Atta, 2kg rice, 2kgs Dal, 1 Kg sugar, 1 litre oil, 1/2 kg salt,  200gms of turmeric red chilli powder, jeera etc, costing Rs 590.

Rotarians supervise the packing of each bag at the vendors approved and selected by the Chandigarh Administration, and will be spending almost Rs.18 lakh for this humanitarian project which is being contributed by club members, informed President Surinder Pal Kaur.

The Club is already supplying daily 500 cooked meals each for lunch and dinner for junior doctors and nurses to PGIMER and 400 meals each in the afternoon and evening for the daily wage earners and migrant labours, thanks to the active involvement of Rtn Kawal Bedi, a past district governor of the club, in coordinating the activities and raising funds.