January
12, 2008 Cherie Blair
Inks Pact to Set Up
Model School in Punjab Village
Chandigarh
Cherie Blair, wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, has
signed a memorandum of understanding with the Punjab government on
behalf of the London-based Loomba Trust for setting up a Rs 10 mn 'Adarsh'
(model) school in Dhilwan village of Punjab's Kapurthala district.
The MOU was signed on behalf of the Loomba Trust by Cherie with
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal at a dinner meeting here
Friday evening. She is the chairperson of the trust set up by
London-based non-resident Indian (NRI) businessman Raj Loomba.
The school will be set up in Dhilwan village, nearly 200 km from
here. The village is the native place of Raj Loomba who had last
week promised to grant Rs 5 mn (Rs 50 lakh) for the school. Badal
had promised to pool in another Rs 5 mn as matching grant from the
Punjab government.
Adarsh schools are a concept introduced by the Badal government to
provide better educational facilities for children in select
villages in Punjab.
Cherie, who is on her maiden visit to Punjab, will visit Dhilwan
village Saturday. She will also visit the Harmandar Sahib (Golden
Temple), the holiest of Sikh shrines in Amritsar. She is visiting
Punjab and India for four days at the initiative of Raj Loomba.
The Loomba Trust has been spearheading the cause of poor widows and
children in India, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal,
Uganda and Kenya. The trust supports over 3,600 children in India.
"I wanted to do something for my village Dhilwan. I made the offer
of giving a grant of Rs 5 mn for the school there at the recent
Punjabi NRI Sammelan held here by the Punjab government and the
chief minister responded positively by announcing a matching grant,"
Loomba told IANS.
The school will be renamed as Shri Jagiri Lal Loomba memorial school
after Loomba's father.
Loomba said that he set up the Loomba Trust a decade ago after
getting inspiration from his mother, who was widowed at a young age
but brought up her children l single-handedly to become successful
in life.
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