Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Covid-19: Door-to-Door Drive to Collect Samples Starts in Amritsar

COVID-19 Test Lab On Wheels: Odisha's Gajapati District Rolls Out ...


The health department and the administration on Monday started door-to-door collection of samples for Covid-19 testing in the Amritsar district with a view to putting in place more effective prevention measures.
To start with, a mobile van of the municipal corporation (MC) started collecting samples in the city’s two containment and as many micro- containment zones. Thereafter, more such vans may be pressed into service in other areas, health officials said.
“The residents of containment zones were reluctant to visit the nearby sample collection centres thinking that they might get infected if they came in contact with others. Due to this, the health department was unable to achieve the target of random sample collection in the city’s two containment zones. Two teams of doctors will be sent in the van at one time,” said assistant civil surgeon Dr Amarjit Singh.
Newly-elected Amritsar mayor Karamjit Singh Rintu during his visit to the Golden temple in Amritsar on Jan 23, 2018. - Karamjit Singh Rintu
Amritsar mayor Karamjit Singh Rintu 
Amritsar mayor Karamjit Singh Rintu said, “This is the first initiative in Punjab to launch a door-to-door sample collection facility. The van has been designed specially to avoid direct contact of health officials with the public. The van has adequate space for storing the samples. If the plan remains successful, the health department will use more such vans.”


Pakistan Govt.Reopens Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur

svg%3E
Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur


The government of Pakistan has reopened Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur for Sikh pilgrims, closed due to coronavirus. Sikh pilgrims from all over the world, including Pakistan, will be able to come to Kartarpur to perform religious rites. 

After three and a half months later at the reopening of Gurdwara Kartarpur, 26 Sikh pilgrims from all over the world including Pakistan attended the religious rites. Sikh pilgrims performed religious rites at Gurdwara Baba Guru Nanak and food was arranged for them on this occasion. Sikh pilgrims also visited different parts of the Gurdwara. A ceremony was also held at Gurdwara Kartarpur for the first time in connection with the 181st birth anniversary of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Religious rites were performed at the ceremony to pay homage to Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Sikh pilgrims were overjoyed as Gurdwara Baba Guru Nanak Kartarpur was reopened after the coronavirus and thanked the government of Pakistan for taking this noble step.


“Speak Up India” :Navjot Singh Sidhu guns for his own govt over Punjab’s indebtedness


Navjot Singh Sidhu, Amarinder singh, Speak Up India, Punjab news, Indian express news
 Mr.Navjot Singh Sidhu 

Ending his self-imposed exile, Congress MLA from Amritsar East Navjot Singh Sidhu addressed NRIs on Sunday night as part of a ‘Speak Up India’ campaign started by the Congress.

The event in which Sidhu spoke was a web broadcast organised by the Indian Overseas Conference.

He said Punjab had slipped from being a revenue surplus state to being neckdeep in debt and also referred to his report on generating revenue from mining while he was a minister. “You cannot afford to be apolitical in such a scenario,” said Sidhu. “Between 2007 and 2017, the debt of the state shot up manifold. Those at the helm mortgaged the state for personal gains. (I) don’t think that the debt has no bearing on people of the state. The funds being used to pay back the loans would have been used for development, education and health.”

“Why are funds not being spent on schools and hospitals? The total revenue receipts of this year was Rs 88,000 crore and of that Rs 47,000 crore has to be repaid as loans with Rs 19,000 crore on account of interest. To add to the problem, we were hit by coronavirus. Now revenue receipts have been calculated to be Rs 62,000 crore. Where will we go? How can we think of development? People who are the cause of this, why will they find solutions to this?” he said.

“In 2019-20, Punjab’s revenue from VAT, taxes etc was Rs 33,000 crore and a state like Tamil Nadu earns Rs 32,000 crore from excise revenue alone… I made a report on sand mining after going to Talengana. The state is earning Rs 43 crore in 10 days. The Akali government earned Rs 42 crore in one year. Where is the money going? The Badals had two buses but now they had 2,000, but the PRTC is under debt,” he said.

He also referred to cable mafia and Justice Kuldeep Singh’s report on land under alleged illegal occupation in his address. “The land should be vacated and then the NRIs can be involved,” he said.



Monday, June 29, 2020

Big-hearted Sikhs Raise £25,000 for Hospital

£25,000 cheque presentation

The Sikh community showed some real heart when it raised more than £25,000 for a new heart-monitoring machine at Ealing Hospital.

Ten people from the Pingalwara Charitable Society (PAC) collectively cycled, ran and walked 1,000 miles over a month in recognition of the National Health Service and its work during the Covid-19 pandemic.
It included PAC’s sure-footed president Jagraj Singh Sran who walked up to five miles a day after work to meet his individual target of 100 miles.
Mr Sran said: “It’s the least we could do for the NHS, especially in recent months when so many people have been putting their own health on the line to help others. We all have a responsibility to help one another.
“The NHS is always there for us, so we should be there for the NHS.”
The cheque was presented to cardiologists Dr Harmandeep Singh and Professor Jaspal Kooner and will be used to help treat the thousands of people treated for heart conditions at the hospital ever year.

Entire Amritsar can feed on langar, my sense of hunger comes from New York: Watch how casual racism of BBC was exposed by chef Vikas Khanna



In an interview with the BBC, Michelin star chef Vikas Khanna sharply corrected the anchor who conjectured that the chef’s generosity of feeding homeless and destitute in India amidst coronavirus lockdown was triggered by his own sense of hunger while he grew up in India.


“You have been famous now. You have cooked for Obamas, you have been on Gordon Ramsay’s show. But, you were not always like this. You are not from a rich family so I dare say you understand how precarious it can be in India,” the BBC anchor said imperiously.
However, Khanna, with his cool demeanour, tersely dispelled the unfounded notions held by the BBC anchor. “My sense of hunger did not come from India so much because I was raised in Amritsar and we have a huge community kitchen where everyone gets fed. The entire city can be fed from the community kitchen,” Khanna said while referring to the pervasive langars in the city that provide food to people.

Vikas KhannaVikas Khanna's reply to BBC anchor wins the internet

He further added that his sense of hunger came from the sprawling American city of New York during his struggling days. “My sense of hunger came from New York, when I was struggling and really at the bottom. It was difficult for a brown kid to rise through, someone who had a dream of winning the Michelin star,” he said.

Faith, Ritual, and Food in India

Chef Vikas Khanna who describes the Langar as a “Mental Therapy”

“Therefore my sense of hunger came from New York when I was living in Grand Central and sleeping around. It came from the United States, not from India,” Khanna emphatically added.

Vikas Khanna helps migrant labourers and poor with cooked meals
The stark images of migrant labourers trudging on their foot empty stomach to their native places across the breadth of India moved the celebrity chef into launching an initiative for those who had been adversely affected by the coronavirus induced lockdown in the country.
Khanna wanted to express his solidarity with those who were going hungry during the lockdown in the wake of coronavirus pandemic. So he put out an appeal on social media for those who were in the need of food during the pandemic and within no time, he received a flurry of responses on social media requesting food for the needy.
As of June 3, Khanna had supported the distribution of sanitary napkins in Diamond Harbour, West Bengal and bankrolled 57 food stations within petrol pumps in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to offer cooked meals to migrant workers hoofing it towards their respective villages. Till June 3, he had approximately distributed 9 million meals in more than 125 cities with the assistance of the National Disaster Relief Force and several other collaborators.







Indore: Sikhs Pay Tribute to 'Sher-e-Punjab' Maharaja Ranjit Singh on his Death Anniversary

Indore: Sikhs pay tribute to 'Sher-e-Punjab' Maharaja Ranjit Singh on his death anniversary


Ranjit Singh's  life story was re-told to children to teach them lessons of courage and good governance.



Indore: Sikh community could not offer tribute to Maharaja Ranjit Singh popularly known as Sher-e-Punjab or Lion of Punjab, like every year. His death anniversary was on Saturday. Like every year, the Sikhs commemorate his contribution and pay tributes to him on the following Sunday of June 27.

Though the memorial event was organised as every year, he was remembered in prayers and special ardas was organised to express thanks to the great leader in various gurudwaras of the city.
His life story was re-told to children to teach them lessons of courage and good governance. “Every year, we offer tribute to the Maharaja with get-together, flower wreaths and celebrations, but this year, since public gatherings were restricted, we only offered prayers in Gurudwaras,” Devendra Singh Gandhi, coordinator of Imli Sahib Gurudwara, said.
Indore � Gurdwara Imli Sahib | India - Madhya Pradesh | Chourishi ...Imli Sahib Gurudwara,Indore,MP
Kirtan was organised in his honour in gurudwaras. Impressed by the Maharaja’s life stories, kids were particularly inspired and wished to be as courageous as him.
Maharaja Ranjit Singh named greatest world leader in BBC Poll ...Maharaja Ranjit Singh
“He survived smallpox in infancy but lost sight in his left eye. He fought his first battle alongside his father at age 10. After his father died, he fought several wars to expel the Afghans in his teenage years and was proclaimed as the ‘Maharaja of Punjab’ at age 21,” Simran Kaur, a teenager, said.

She felt that such real-life stories are needed to be re-told today, as we often get depressed easily. “I can feel my blessings when I compare it to the life of Maharaja, who bore so many pains in such a nascent age,” Narender Singh, a businessman, said.
“Maharaja is still our inspiration and in times of covid-19, we need to learn from him,” Surender Singh, president of LIG gurudwara committee, said. He added that Maharaja had defeated Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln during the early 19th century.
“His policies were based on respect for all communities, Hindu, Sikh and Muslim. We need to remember and re-learn those policies,” Singh added.



India Rejects Pakistan Offer to Reopen Corridor

India rejects Pak offer to reopen corridor
Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur

India has turned down on health and technical grounds Pakistan’s offer to reopen the Kartarpur Sahib corridor on June 29 to mark the death anniversary of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. New Delhi rejected the offer within hours on Saturday after Islamabad conveyed its readiness to reopen the corridor.
Sources here said any such decision would have to be taken in consultation with the health authorities and other stakeholders as cross-border travel had been suspended to contain the virus.

India accused Pakistan of being less than sincere in making the offer as Islamabad aired the proposal at a short notice of two days. On the other hand, the bilateral agreement provides for information to be shared by India with the Pakistan side at least seven days before the date of travel. This would need India to open up the registration process well in advance, the sources pointed out. Besides, Pakistan has not built the bridge on their side across the flood plains of Ravi river despite having committed to it in the agreement. With the advent of monsoon, it would need to be evaluated whether safe pilgrim movement was possible through the corridor.

This comes at a time of rock-bottom bilateral ties, as both countries are reducing their staff strength at their respective High Commissions by half, after India fired the salvo earlier this week on Tuesday.

Hailing the Kartarpur Corridor as a “true symbol of peace and religious harmony”, Pakistan on Saturday morning offered to open the corridor, saying that as “religious places are gradually opening up around the world, Pakistan has also made necessary arrangements to reopen Kartarpur Sahib Corridor for Sikh pilgrims”. Islamabad also invited New Delhi to work out necessary Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for reopening of the Corridor to ensure compliance with health guidelines.

The corridor was inaugurated in November last year by Pakistan PM Imran Khan on the eve of Guru Nanak’s 550th birth anniversary. 


Pink Ladoo Project - Celebrate the Birth of Girl Child



There's Lots in a Ladoo

Lawyer Raj Khaira : Founder of Pink Ladoo Project

The Pink Ladoo Project was set up to challenge these views and to encourage communities to celebrate the birth of all babies equally, regardless of gender.


It was launched on the International Day of the Girl Child in October 2015, by lawyer Raj Khaira, who decided to take a stand against long held patriarchal views which see females as a financial burden to parents because of the dowry system.

kiss_pink_ladoo_project-02
It’s about starting conversations and educating the older generation, but we recognise this is not going to happen overnight.”

The Pink Ladoo Project – Interview with founder Raj Khaira ...

kiss_pink_ladoo_project-03

Raj used this“tradition” to make a statement. By encouraging the celebration and conversation of equality for girls through the giving out of pink Ladoos at their birth. This transformation of a normal yellow Ladoo into a pink one creates a powerful yet simple symbol of protest against bygone sexist customs.

SBS Language | The Pink Ladoo Project is helping fight gender ...

http://www.kissbranding.co.uk/the-pink-ladoo-project/

Sikh community in US hosts drive-thru food distribution for 2,100 families



Ginny Ahluwalia, Representative of the Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee of the Guru Nanak Foundation of America speaking to ANI on Sunday (local time). Photo/ANI
Ginny Ahluwalia, representative of the Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee of the Guru Nanak Foundation of America

Silver Spring (USA), June 29, 2020: Outside a place of worship in a parking lot, a group of not more than 25 volunteers has made and distributed more than 2,100 food packages in just seven weeks.

The Guru Nanak Foundation of America Gurudwara in Silver Spring, in the Washington DC metro area, has turned the traditional tenant of Sikhism -- the 'Langar Sewa' into a drive-thru food distribution zone.

About 300 plus families in their cars, line up-almost bumper to bumper every Sunday morning to receive donated food items like fresh produce and packaged food -- a necessity for some in poverty or anyone else in search of a meal amid COVID-19.

People from different faiths and religions show up in the drive-through as early as 9:30 am, even though the distribution does not open until 11 am.

A volunteer, with a smile on his face and a package in his hands, places a week's worth of food items in every car trunk that pulls up at the Sikh temple's driveway vibrating hope and optimism.
"I am just so grateful that you are helping the community," a lady thanks the volunteers. "When you come here to get something, it is not like anything below your dignity, but it is looking forward to something that you can appreciate," said another of the many people lined up to receive the food package.

"That smile on the face I think that says it all and I think, more than them, it is us that are grateful that we have been able to carry out this food drive," said Ginny Ahluwalia, Representative of the Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee of the Guru Nanak Foundation of America.

The process of packaging and distribution is highly systematised. A team of volunteers shows up on Saturday to methodically assemble a room full of crackers, cookies, cakes, food cans and fresh fruits. On the next day, the volunteers then distribute the food package at the drive-through.

"By God's grace, we have been successfully doing this for the seventh week. We have not had any shortage (food and funds)," Ginny told ANI.

"People have been donating. So, whoever can volunteer is giving their time. Whoever cannot give their time is giving money," she said.


The gurdwara shares information about the distribution through regular posts on large social media groups for local residents and even reaches out to other places of worship in the community to get the word out.








































Sikhs Fighting For Ethnic Tick-Box in UK Claim Victory



LONDON: The Sikh Federation UK (SFUK) is celebrating a “victory” in its campaign to get a Sikh ethnic tick-box added to the 2021 UK census after Scottish ministers agreed to put a prompt for Sikhs in the “other” part of the ethnicity response options. They also assured to “monitor Sikhs as an ethnic group as well as religion” going forwards.

The SFUK, which claims to have the backing of more than 150 gurdwaras and Sikh organisations, has withdrawn its legal case in Scotland but is still battling ahead with a second judicial review against the Cabinet Office over the lack of a Sikh ethnic tick-box in the proposed census for England and Wales.

On May 7, the Census (Scotland) Regulation 2020 was laid in the Scottish Parliament which included a prompt for Sikhs and Jews in the “Other” response option to the question “What is your ethnic group?”.

“At the top there is a choice of White, Mixed, Asian, African, Caribbean and Other. Sikhs is not within Asian, it is coming under Other,” said Dabinderjit Singh OBE, principal adviser to the SFUK.

The Federation’s tick-box campaign got a further boost in a letter dated June 24 from Scotland’s economy secretary Fiona Hyslop. The letter, which TOI has seen, states she will now “work with the Sikh Federation (UK) to ensure public bodies in Scotland monitor Sikhs as an ethnic group, as well as a religion”.

In the past public bodies have only followed the Census categories for ethnic data collection . “The only reason we wanted a Sikh ethnic tick-box box was to force Scotland to monitor Sikhs,” explained Singh. “We feel we have won the war in Scotland and do not feel there is any point in continuing legal action in the court of session.”

The Federation has also withdrawn its appeal against a December 12, 2019, judgment handed down in a first judicial review the SFUK brought against the Cabinet Office over the England and Wales census after the government objected to there being two cases running simultaneously over the same issue.

On June 11, SFUK submitted an application for a second judicial review to the high court seeking to quash the Census (England and Wales) Order 2020 on the grounds it was unlawful after Mrs Justice Lang ruled the first legal challenge was premature. Bringing the first case cost the Federation just over £1,00,000 in ‘capped’ legal costs for both sides.

If the second judicial review is allowed, the legal costs may not be capped and if the Federation win the case, the UK-wide census scheduled for 21 March 2021, could be delayed.



Sunday, June 28, 2020

Mission Fateh Warriors on COVA (Corona Virus Alert) Punjab mobile app :Ludhiana tops state in COVA mobile app registrations

Screenshot Image
Mission Fateh Warriors on COVA (Corona Virus Alert) Punjab mobile app


Ludhiana is on the top in the state with a maximum number of people registering themselves as Mission Fateh Warriors on COVA (Corona Virus Alert) Punjab mobile app launched by the state government. Patiala and Amritsar stand second and third respectively.
So far, more than 33 lakh people in the state have downloaded this app.
As per the data, a total of 15,673 people have downloaded the app in the district and have got themselves registered as Mission Fateh Warriors. They are further educating the masses about the ways to keep themselves safe from Covid-19.
A total of 10,848 people in Patiala and 7,897 people in Amritsar have connected themselves with the app.
In Ludhiana, as many as 5,712 people have uploaded pictures of their activities.
The Punjab government has urged residents to download the app and educate the masses in large numbers after which they would be honoured with gold, silver and bronze certificates.
In Ludhiana, residents have already won 12 silver and 75 bronze certificates.