Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 20: Governor N.N. Vohra, President of Indian Red Cross Society, J&K, felicitated all civil, police, central police forces, army and civil society organizations which had supported the Red Cross movement in the past year and contributed towards organizing the Red Cross Mela which was held at Jammu earlier this year. The felicitation function was held at the Raj Bhavan here today.
The Governor lauded Dr. Pawan Kotwal, Chairman of the Jammu IRCS, for his sustained interest in promoting the activities of the Red Cross Society. Highlighting the importance of the IRCS, the Governor said that its noble objectives should be followed with missionary zeal as it is a movement for the welfare of all humanity. In this context, he observed that adequate resources are required by the District, Regional and State level Branches of the IRCS for suitably discharging their roles and appealed to the Deputy Commissioners to organize more Red Cross Melas at district level for generating larger resources for the organization.
The Governor stressed inclusion of more volunteers from both the districts in the Ladakh region and, asked M.S Rather, General Secretary, IRCS J&K to enlarge IRCS’s activities in this region. He appreciated the IRCS Jammu initiatives whereby 946 drivers from Government and private sector had been provided First Aid training in the past year.
The Governor presented Appreciation Awards to Dr. Pawan Kotwal, Divisional Commissioner Jammu; S.M Sahai, then ADGP Armed Police; Kuldeep Dhar, IGP, CRPF, Jammu; Danish Rana, IGP, Jammu; Shahid Iqbal Chowdhary, Deputy Commissioner Udhampur; Mr. A.V.L. J Rao, Deputy Commissioner K.V Sangathan, Jammu; Dr. Kiran Bakshi, Principal, Government College for Women, Gandhi Nagar, Dr. Renu Goswami, Principal, Government College for Women, Parade Jammu; Dinesh Gupta, Chairman, Citizens Cooperative Bank, Jammu; Balbir Singh, Chief Education Officer, Kathua; Bishan Singh, Chief Education Officer, Udhampur; O.P Bhagat, Chief Education Officer, Samba; Ashok Gupta, Managing Director, ASL Tutorials; S.K. Bansal of M.D. Saraswati Plasto Tech; Vikrant Sharma, Programme Head, 92.7 Big FM.; Akhil Suri and Bhaskar Suri of Eye Event; Siddharth Dogra of Jammu Links; Brig.(Retd.) M.M. Harjai, Arunima Sinha, Dr. Renu Nanda, Annil Suri, Dinesh Gupta, S.R. Sharma, Dr. T.R Raina, O.P. Sharma, Navneet Kour, Members of the Executive Committee of IRCS Jammu; M.S Rather, General Secretary, IRCS, J&K State Branch; R.C. Puri, Secretary, IRCS, Jammu Region; and Roma Wani, former General Secretary, Indian Red Cross Society, J&K.
The Awards were also received by Col. S.S Jha and Col. S. Jamwal on behalf of Shaela Nimbhorkar, Zonal President AWWA, HQ 16 Corps; Col. Ramesh Dabur on behalf of Brig. S.K.S Chouhan, 162 Infantry Brigade; R.S Jamwal, Joint Commissioner Jammu Municipal Corporation on behalf of Mandeep Kour, Commissioner, Jammu Municipal Corporation; Dr. Man Mohan Singh, Addl. D.C. Kathua on behalf of Deputy Commissioner Kathua; Narinder Singh on behalf of Bhupinder Kumar, Deputy Commissioner Doda; Raman Koushik on behalf of Arvind Gupta, Vice-President, J&K Bank, Ltd.; O.P Sharma on behalf of Rakesh Kumar Sharma, former IGP, BSF, Jammu; Aman Kumar Dogra on behalf of Chief Education Officer Reasi; Rizwana on behalf of Nicolas Lenssens, Team Leader, ICRC, Jammu; and Col. Rattan Singh (Retd.) on behalf of Gunjan Rana of Jamkash Vehicleades.
Dr. Pawan Kotwal, Chairman Indian Red Cross Society, Jammu Region presented the welcome address and informed the Governor that Rs. 25.10 lakh was collected this year by sale of Raffle tickets. He highlighted the ongoing programmes and future plans of the Red Cross Society in the Jammu region.
P.K Tripathi, Principal Secretary to the Governor was present on the occasion.