Over 10,000 students of Amritsar today gave a collective and strong message to the world that youth of Punjab would fight unified war against the menace of drugs and eradicate it from the pious soil of Punjab. With this first ever largest gathering, the students of Amritsar gave a striking dance performance at one place to register the holy city into 'the Guinness Book of World Records'.In one of the largest recorded gathering of the world against drugs, the students of Amritsar, the holy city took a lead to give a stern message to perpetuators of drug menace to refrain from exploiting the precious life of youth of country. The entire event was monitored by 10 CCTV Cameras and judged by 200 judges for a 5 minutes synchronized performance by the largest gathering of participants.
The entry of students was ensured through proper bar-coding system. The students attired in yellow t-shirts with bold message against drugs besides making a human chain raised their collective hands to take an oath against drug addiction and fighting this menace with their collective will. They also vowed to take this message to every village, every youth of the country using all kinds of communication medium available to them including social media platform. They also pledged to continue their fight against the menace of drug addiction till they are able to weed out this problem from the country forever besides ensuring drug free life.
Appreciating the students for bringing the holy city Amritsar on World Map through this unique endeavour with largest ever gathering against drug menace, Deputy Commissioner Mr. Ravi Bhagat said that this menace was worldwide social problem and ruining the precious life of youth. He said time has come that Administration, law enforcement authorities, all NGOs, volunteers' organization and vigilant citizens of country have to wage a collective war against this menace to save our future generations.In this joint initiative of District Administration and Sun Foundation the students performed under title 'Shake Your Legs, Keep Away from Drugs' to disseminate awareness against drugs. Padma Shri awardee Vikramjit S. Sahney, Chairman-Sun Foundation and Former Captain of Indian Cricket Team Mr. Bishan Singh Bedi graced the occasion with their motivations speeches.
Sahney described that drug abuse had become a rampant social problem in recent years and the need of the hour to eliminate this menace. He also announced that Sun Foundation will be partnering with the state shortly and run the Skill & Occupational Therapy Centre of Swami Vivekanand De-addiction and Rehabilitation Centre' at Amritsar. The Foundation will also assist in activities including Motivational Therapy, Yoga, Group Therapy, Dance Therapy, Meditation etc. and also provide amenities to the center including eight-seater vehicle for transport, equipment for Printing Press, computers for Computer Lab, Musical Instruments for Music therapy and Professional training, Set-up for IT Training on Mobile repair and Salaries of the Trainers for above programmes. Mr. Pankaj and Preeti performed choreography to make the event more historic.It is pertinent here that earlier 4428 students gathered in Mumbai in 2012 at a single place to give a performance and the number of students in this event of Khalsa College was more than double to that.
Deputy Commissioner Mr. Ravi Bhagat also thanked Students, School Managements, Teachers, Parents, officers/officials of District Administration for making this event a great success. Prominent amongst those present on the occasion Dr. Tarundeep Kaur, IRS, wife of Deputy Commissioner Mr. Ravi Bhagat, Mr. Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhinna, Secretary Khalsa College, Assistant Commissioner Madam Amandeep Kaur, in SDMs Mr. Vimal Setia, Mr. Rohit Gupta, Mr. Rajesh Sharma, Mr. Surinder Singh, Chairman Improvement Trust Mr. Sandeep Rishi, District Transport Officer Mrs. Lovejeet Kalsi etc.