Sikh Families Reunited 75 Years After India’s Partition
Seventy-five years after they separated during India’s Partition in 1947, the families of two Sikh brothers met at the Kartarpur Corridor on Thursday. They sang songs and showered flowers on each other in an emotional reunion made possible through social media.The Kartarpur Corridor links Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan’s Punjab province, the final resting place of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev, with the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district in India’s Punjab state.The families of Gurdev Singh and Daya Singh arrived at the Kartarpur Corridor on Thursday for a reunion.Both the brothers hailed from Haryana and used to live in Gomla village in Mahendragarh district with their late father’s friend, Karim Bakhsh, at the time of the Partition.Bakhsh migrated to Pakistan along with elder Gurdev Singh while younger Daya Singh remained in Haryana with his maternal uncle. After reaching Pakistan, Karim Bakhsh moved to Jhang district of Punjab province, some 200 km from Lahore, and gave a Muslim name (Ghulam Muhammad) to Gurdev Singh. Gurdev Singh passed away a few years ago.Muhammad Sharif, son of Gurdev, said that over the years, his father had written letters to the Indian government to find the whereabouts of his brother Daya Singh. “Six months ago, we managed to locate uncle Daya Singh through social media. Both families decided to reach Kartarpur Sahib for the reunion.” Sharif urged the Indian government to give visas to his family members in Pakistan so that they could visit their ancestral house in Haryana.
Remote Vote Concept Has To Wait
The Election Commission some time back had given a call to all national and regional political parties to give their response to its proposal to start ‘remote voting’ for domestic migrants–living across the country far from their homes–by 28 February. As not many responses have come, the EC will reissue its request for responses soon. It was waiting for the state Assembly poll process to be over in Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya. EC sources told The Sunday Guardian that some national and state parties have submitted their replies on remote voting concept. Actually, not many parties are keen to go for this as they suspect a “greater design” behind it.
Gujarat Petroleum Dealers take back decision To Stop CNG Sale
Petroleum dealers from Gujarat decided ‘to stop CNG sale’ from Thursday till their long-pending demand was not met. After hectic meetings and an assurance from the Petroleum Ministry that their demand would be fulfilled soon, the dealers called off their agitation at the last minute.The Federation of Gujarat Petroleum Dealer’s Association (FGPDA)’s President, ArvindbhaiThakker, told The Sunday Guardian that they had declared an agitation to stop CNG sale from 3 March because of non-revision of their margin since last four years.Because of this, Thakker said, Civil Supply Department, Gujarat government, called a meeting of all the three oil marketing companies (OMCs), all city gas distribution companies CGDs) and office bearers of the FGPDA. Thakker said that the Ministry of Petroleum and oil companies have taken this issue seriously and “we have been assured that the matter will be resolved soon”. The Indian Oil Company in Gujarat, meanwhile, has agreed to give dealers a letter confirming to release their margin up to 20 March. “On the basis of a satisfactory assurance,” Thakker said, “we withdraw our agitation”. It is learnt that the margin of CNG dealers has not been revised since last 55 months (from 1 July 2019) by the IOC, BPCL and HPCL. In response to the dealers’ repeated appeals to revise their margin, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry and the OMCs had appointed IIM Bangalore to study and recommend dealers’ right margin for CNG. The IIM, Bangalore, submitted its report in December 2019. But the recommended revised margin has not been declared by the OMCs.On 1 November 2021, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas issued an order to OMCs to implement it immediately. But no attention was given to this Ministerial order for 15 months. “Meanwhile, we sent 52 letters, e-mails and had several meetings with OMC officials. They did not respond satisfactorily,” Thakker said.
Men Arrested For Stealing Flower Pots
A 50-year-old property dealer was arrested and a Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority in Haryana sacked on Wednesday over the theft of flower pots kept for beautification of the area for a G20 event. The police recovered 10 stolen flower pots and an SUV, which was used to lift the flower pots.The Gurugram police on Tuesday lodged an FIR into the theft of flower pots after a video clip of two men stealing them went viral on social media.The incident took place Monday in front of the Ambience mall on the Delhi-Gurugram Expressway. A number of flower pots were set up here ahead of G20 meetings that are scheduled to take place from 1 to 4 March.