Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday announced Rs. 50 lakhs for the upkeep and maintenance of the memorial of Shaheed-e-Azam Sardar Bhagat Singh at his ancestral village of Khatkar Kalan, where CM paid floral tributes to the great martyr on his 113th birth anniversary.
Remembering the courage of Bhagat Singh and other martyrs during the Indian freedom struggle, the Chief Minister exhorted the youth to emulate the high ideals of these revolutionaries. Captain Amarinder recalled his visit to the cellular jail in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where scores of revolutionaries lived through horrifying hardships in their fight to free India from the shackles of British imperialism.
The Chief Minister was joined by AICC General Secretary and Punjab Affairs in charge Harish Rawat, who also paid rich tributes to Shaheed Bhagat Singh, along with PPCC president Sunil Jakhar and MP Preneet Kaur at the memorial.
Tourism and Cultural Affairs Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, while paying homage to Shaheede-Azam Bhagat Singh, called upon the people to follow in his footsteps of the son of the soil, and take inspiration from his ideals.
Prominent among others who were present on the occasion included Punjab Vidhan Sabha Speaker Rana KP Singh, Cabinet Ministers OP Soni, Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Sadhu Singh Dharmsot, Aruna Chaudhary, Balbir Singh Sidhu, Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Sunder Sham Arora and others.
SAD president Sardar Sukhbir Singh Badal also paid glowing tributes to Sardar Bhagat Singh. He said that the secular vision and the egalitarian ideology of the greatest patriotic icon were never more relevant to the country than there are today.
“There never was a greater and more urgent need for the people of our country to follow the secular and socialist ideas of the Shaheede-Azam than today when our country’s basic secular fabric has come under a severe strain.”