Under the Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s ambitious program ‘Connect with Your Roots’ (CYR), a group of 14 youth from England on Tuesday landed at Mohali International Airport, where they were accorded a rousing welcome. The group would visit different parts of the state from August 7 to 16, 2018.Disclosing this here today, an official spokesman said that the visiting delegation was received by Principal Secretary NRIs Affairs S.R. Ladhar and OSD to Chief Minister Jagdeep Singh Sidhu on behalf of the state Government. The first group comprising eight boys and six girls aged between 16-22 years arrived here under the CYR program to acquaint themselves with the Punjab’s glorious culture and heritage besides visiting places of religious, historic and ethnic importance. The group from England would also meet the families, friends and relatives of their parents and grandparents thus apprising them with their lineage.Buoyed over their maiden visit to Punjab-the soil of their ancestors, the visiting youth said it was a sheer thrilling experience to interact with their peers, relatives, friends, which would afford them a unique opportunity to mutually share their experiences and views about the traditions, language, dialect and cuisine of Punjab and England.
Meanwhile, S.R. Ladhar informed that under CYR program of State Government, many more groups would visit Punjab. He said that the group would be visiting their ancestral places in the districts of Jalandhar, Patiala, Ludhiana, SBS Nagar, Faridkot and Mohali. Ladhar also mentioned that 18-member delegation consisted of 14 youngsters besides four members including a program coordinator Varinder Singh Khera, his wife and two kids.The members of the visiting group would also interact with Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh during the state-level Independence Day celebrations at Ludhiana. Among the places that the youngsters are scheduled to visit are Sri Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple), Durgiana Mandir and Ram Tirath, Jallianwala Bagh, War Memorial, Attari-Wagah Border and Gobindgarh Fort in Amritsar.The group would also visit the Punjab Civil Secretariat, Punjab Vidhan Sabha and Rock Garden in Chandigarh; Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, National Institute of Sports and Punjabi University in Patiala, besides the Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh Memorial at Khatkar Kalan in SBS Nagar District.At Sri Anandpur Sahib, the group would pay obeisance at historic Gurdwara Takhat Sri Keshgarh Sahib and visit Khalsa Heritage Complex.They will visit Sri Guru Ravidass Memorial at Khuralgarh in Hoshiarpur, famous for its handicrafts, besides the industrial hub at Jalandhar and the Punjab Agricultural University in Ludhiana.