Unique singing competition for visually-impaired: Judges, musicians & anchor too were disabled

Jaswant Singh Gandam & Raman Nehra

PHAGWARA: Punarjot, an NGO wedded to the mission of ‘Corneal Blindness Free World’, and Cambridge International School (CIS), Phagwara organized a state-level singing competition of the visually-impaired (‘nettarheen’) participants here.
The beauty of the function was that besides the singers, the judges, musicians and the anchor of the contest were also visually-impaired.
The ‘nettarheen’ singers, drawn from various institutes for the blind, brightened up the souls of listeners with the light of their soulful songs, keeping the audience spell-bound.

Dubai-based philanthropist cum entrepreneur and Chairman CIS KS Bassi presided over the function. Environmentalist Padam Shri Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal was the guest of honor. School Principal Zoravar Singh accompanied him.
A large number of NRIs from Dubai, the USA, the UK, Canada etc attended the function.

Popular Punjabi singers Kanth Kaler and Lehmber Hussainpuri promised to record songs of the winners.

KS Bassi and his wife Jassi Bassi gave Rs 5000 to each participant. Their daughter Komal Bassi donated Rs 1.1 lakh to Punarjot. Posters for Organ Donor Awareness were released on this occasion.
In a noble gesture, Lehmber Hussainpuri and his wife Rozy Hussainpuri declared to donate their organs. An organ donor from London (UK) Aneeta Sandhu motivated people to donate their organs.
Kanth and Sandhu gifted watches designed specially for the blind.
USA-based Shein Rolling and Balbir Bhanoki donated Rs 10,000 and 21,000 respectively. Lions Club Coventry, UK, gave Rs 500 to each of the participants.

Winners of Junior Group Manpreet Kaur (first),Golu Kumar (second) and Mehak Sethi (third) were given Rs 10,000, 7,500 and 5,000 cash prizes respectively. Founder of Punjab Bhavan, Canada, Sukhi Bath sponsored these prizes.
Winners of Senior Group Lovepreet Singh(first),Vikram Singh(second) and Jaiya Dhiman(third) bagged Rs 15,000,10,000 and 5,000 cash prizes respectively. These were sponsored by UK-based NRI Balihar Singh, Bath village welfare body and Canada-based NRI Buta Singh respectively.
Members of National Hockey Team, UK, also attended the function.
Talking to India Post, Punarjot Punjab Coordinator Ashok Mehra, himself a UK-based NRI from this area, disclosed that the NGO, under its project ‘Donate Eye, Give Sight’, had so far secured 1.25 lakh pledge forms for eye donations from prospective donors, including NCC cadets. 5100 cornea transplantations had hitherto been done, giving sight to the blind, he said.
Transplantation is done by ophthalmologist Dr Rakesh Kumar, Director of Punarjot, who was present at the function.