I was shocked to see people shouting that the ‘Chief Minister has been shot just 20 minutes back.’ They still considered him the CM. The irony of fate is that I was the one to first spot his car near Rai and found him assassinated. He was charged with bestowing financial favours and had to resign from his post and quit politics. He was accused of corruption, but I never paid a penny to him. He brought the Indo-Swiss Training Centre to Chandigarh and also started three universities - Kurukshetra, Punjabi and Punjab Agricultural. He was not parochial, and for the PGI, he invited doctors and surgeons from all over India. He got the approval of the Prime Minister, had Parliament pass an Act to establish this institution. He was singularly responsible for the creation of the PGIMER in 1962. Kairon was educated at Berkeley University, California, and the Michigan University in Ann Arbor. I requested for Rs 5 lakh from the Punjab government for preference shares. This factory was a public limited company. In 1963, I got his approval and support for another factory near Rai. Kairon was affectionate and I had the carte blanche to meet him at any time. He resolved all those hitches and I got the plot at a reasonable rate and that too payable in easy instalments. Returning from there, I reported to him that I needed a 6-acre plot, but only 2-acre plots were available, and to join them, I would need the chief architect’s permission. He assigned an officer to visit the industrial area.
I told him that I would consult my German collaborators and would revert soon.Īfter getting approval from our German partners, I got an appointment with him. He said he would give power connection anywhere in Punjab but why not consider Chandigarh as it was a new and fast developing city. I knew this was him and I requested for sanction of electricity in Faridabad for setting up a factory. I did not recognise him until one of them said, ‘Dassoji,’ and pointed to a chair in front of me. Three bearded men were sitting on one side of the table. I came to meet him in Chandigarh and at the appointed time entered his office. I came to Chandigarh from Kolkata in 1960 and the person instrumental for this move was Sardar Partap Singh Kairon, the then Chief Minister of Punjab. One of his sons, Partap Singh Kairon, took active part in India’s struggle for freedom, and won renown as a political leader.On October 1, a man would have turned 120 and it makes me walk down memory lane. Nihal Singh also instituted at the school an annual women’s conference which became an active agent of social reform.īhai Nihal Singh died on 20 November 1928. Maharaja Bhupinder Singh, ruler of the princely state of Patiala, performed, on 14 March 1916, the opening ceremony of the hostel which celebrating the name of a member of the Patiala family was called Mata Sahib Kaur Bhujhangan Ashram. Accompanied by Baba Dial Singh and a group of students from his school, Nihal Singh visited Malaya, Hong Kong and Shanghai to raise funds for the school and the hostel attached to it. The girls school was a novelty in the area and the founder, Nihal Singh, encountered considerable opposition, but he persisted with his plans and in May 1913 laid the cornerstone of a boarding house for girls as well. A concrete outcome of this conclave was a girls’ school established at Kairon. The first meeting of the Diwan, held on 17-19 February 1905 at Tarn Taran, was largely attended by people from all parts of the Punjab.
part in establishing a Sikh society called Majha Khalsa Diwan. He founded a boys’ school in his village and took a leading. He joined the Royal Artillery at Hong Kong, but soon secured his release and returned to his village in the Punjab to work for community welfare and reform. Nihal Singh had no formal schooling, and travelled with his brother, Tarlok Singh, to Malaya (Malaysia) while still very young. His father, Gulab Singh, a deeply religious person, had three sons, Nihal Singh being the youngest of them. Was born on 22 December 1863 at Kairon, a village in Amritsar district. A Pioneer Of Women’s Education In The Punjab (1863-1928)
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