Attempt to gatecrash Punjab CM’s function foiled

Sunam, July 31

With CM Capt Amarinder Singh scheduled to reach Sunam in Sangrur district today to inaugurate a memorial dedicated to freedom fighter Udham Singh, protesters gathered near the venue to express their anguish against the state government.

But the police, to avoid chaos, shifted the helipad where the CM was expected to land, from the Sunam grain market to the Mansa road last night. However, senior officers kept it a highly guarded secret.

Expecting the CM’s arrival at the grain market, anganwari workers blocked the ITI Chowk, MGNREGA workers staged a protest around 150 metre from the memorial, while family members of freedom fighters blocked the road near the memorial.

The police opposed the protesters to pose as if the CM would land at the grain market, but the CM landed on the Mansa road and reached the venue and left without any problem.

Sangrur SSP Vivek Sheel Soni said: “We only prevented the protesters from reaching inside the venue.” The CM announced that his government would soon construct a memorial as a befitting tribute to the countless unsung heroes who laid down their lives. — TNS

Memorial unveiled

The state-of-the-art Sunam memorial includes a life-sized copper statue of Shaheed Udham Singh, four stones on which his brief life history and heroic deeds are engraved in Punjabi and English, a museum displaying relics, rare pictures and documents, and an urn containing ashes of the martyr