Members of the NRI Sabha (Punjab) have taken out a protest against its ex-president Pritam Singh Narangpuri’s act of declaring himself as the working president of the body at present.
In recent days, Nagapuri has claimed that since the elected president Kirpal Singh Sahota now resides in the United States, he was appointed as the Sabha’s working president. According to the staff of the NRI Sabha, when Narangpuri was asked to show a letter from the government or the Department of NRI Affairs which confirms his claims, he refused to provide it, saying it was kept back at his home and he forgot to bring it along.
According to NRI Sabha, in charge Darshan Singh, when the incident took place on Wednesday, July 28, he was not present in the office. He confirmed that he will now have to take up the matter with higher officials.
“Narangpuri is cooking up a fake story. Sabha’s constitution does not allow any such arrangement. I have personally called up the minister and department officials to check if any such orders had been passed and they confirmed that no such decision had been taken,” ex-president of the Sabha Jasvir Singh Shergill was quoted as saying.
He further said that in 2014, when he was the Sabha’s chief, a move was started in order to cancel his membership since he was unable to produce documents confirming his NRI status. “So, he cannot in any way himself assume the charge as the sabha president,” Shergill said.
Narangpuri has meanwhile produced a self-signed note which mentions that at a meeting held in the office of the NRI Sabha, the Department of NRI Affairs appointed him as the working president. He said that as many as eight members were present at the meeting — Jagjit Singh Sodhi, SK Chopra, Paramjit Singh, Amrik Singh, Sukhchain Singh, Jarnail Singh, Avtar Singh and Mohinder Singh.
In 1996, the NRI Sabha Punjab office was formally inaugurated by the Governor of Punjab, His Excellency Lt. Gen. (Retd) B.K.N. Chhibber. As per the Sabha’s website, “The Govt. of Punjab gave their approval to the constitution of NRI Sabha Punjab and for its registration on 5.3.98. Thus the Sabha was got registered as a society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 on March 20, 1998.”
