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Royal couple keeps date with Patiala
Patiala, October 4 The royal city, too, rose aptly to the occasion: a royal reception being accorded to the royal couple, the locals adjusting with the traffic restrictions so as to ensure a smooth journey to the Palace for the guests and a Sikh Regiment band from Jharkhand doing the final job. Dressed in white, Camilla landed at Patiala Aviation Club in a Punjab government chopper at 3.35 pm. There, Union Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur along with Information and Punjab Public Relations Minister Sewa Singh Sekhwan presented a bouquet to her. Subsequently, Camilla and Preneet drove to New Moti Bagh Palace in a white BMW car. Prince Charles, who visited Fatehgarh Sahib in the day, reached Patiala at 5.20 pm in an Indian Air Force helicopter. Capt Amarinder Singh, Sekhwan and other dignitaries were there to receive him, after which he too headed for the Palace. Notably, the British couple is on a private visit to New Moti Bagh Palace — on an invitation by Capt Amarinder Singh. For a couple of hours post-3 pm, the entire route from the Patiala Aviation Club to Sangrur Road, via Army Area to YPS Chowk and New Moti Bagh Palace was closed for commuters — in order to ensure that the royal guests have a smooth passage. For some time, even the vicinity of the Palace was cordoned off as a security measure. As the cavalcade of Prince Charles reached New Moti Bagh Palace, a grand welcome was accorded to the British royals by a band of Sikh Regiment that had specially come from Jharkhand. As the media was not allowed inside, some of the guests told The Tribune that the Palace was decorated specially for the purpose. Special lights were installed in the entire palace where Prince Charles and Camilla along with a selected few other guests were to relish the dinner hosted by Capt Amarinder. According to a government spokesman, after overnight stay at the Palace, Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles would leave for Chandigarh in a special helicopter of the Indian Air Force on Tuesday morning. From there, the royal couple would leave for Jodhpur in Rajasthan.
Badal’s initiative to clean rivers lauded
Chandigarh October 4 Realising the enormous contribution of the Sikh community towards the growth and development of the British economy, the Prince of Wales said the Punjabi diaspora, settled in UK, especially the Sikhs had contributed with magnanimity for the promotion of worldwide programmes, initiated by him, for the welfare of mankind. He expressed satisfaction over the performance of the Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust (BYST), which was the first organisation to replicate the Prince's Trust Youth Business model successfully outside the UK. Badal urged Prince Charles to extend the activities of the Trust Youth Business model to Punjab and extended an open invitation to the BYST to set up the trust's offices in Punjab and work for supporting the youth in their enterprises.
Camilla’s ‘inspirational’ talk with special kids
Chandigarh, October 4 A small interaction of the Duchess with special children was followed by a detailed visit to each corner of the institute. Promila Chandermohan, the director of SOREM, said the lady paid special attention towards understanding the functioning of the state-of-the-art machines, installed for children’s physiotherapy. “Not just the machines, Camilla was more impressed with the unexplained bond of understanding that existed among children. Though for the entire world they may not be self-sufficient, their small acts of helping each other to upkeep the decorum and the name of institute in front of the guest touched her. She appreciated the efforts of the institute in bringing to mainstream the kids while retaining their innocence and simplicity,” added Chandermohan. Interestingly, while the children tried to put their best foot forward, they kept on asking about the special guest when she left. The wife of the US ambassador to India, Sally, committed that she will be paying more visits to the institute in near future. Camilla was presented with a gift containing bags made of the fabric woven by the children and paper and other embroidered goods made by them. On her way out, she planted a sapling of Plumeria tree, known as temple tree or Champa in India.
Prince visits Fatehgarh farmhouse Fatehgarh Sahib, October 4 Gill told him about net house farming, through which he had grown seedless cucumber, tomatoes, coriander and a unique variety of banana.Charles also inspected farm tools, including computerised laser land leveller and happy seeder, a machine that crushes wheat stubble and plants paddy seeds directly. This is the Prince’s second visit to the district. He had visited Bhatmajra village of this district in March 2006. Charles was also shown organic seeds, vegetables and wheat grown in various parts of Punjab. During his earlier visit also, the Prince had supported the vision of organic farming. Initially enthusiastic, farmers later backed out of the organic farm projects inaugurated by the Prince despite being provided with huge grants by the government.
Bathinda farmer presents rose oil to Prince Charles
Bathinda, October 4 Rajinderpal said on the telephone that he presented 2 gm of the precious rose oil to the Prince. He was also given the opportunity of being photographed with Prince Charles. Prince Charles was curious about the success of organic farming, particularly in the Malwa belt where chemical fertilisers have played havoc with the environment. He advised farmers to plant the traditional species of peepal and neem trees. Rajinderpal said the Prince enquired whether his produce was fetching remunerative rates. Prince Charles gave tips about organic farming to the farmers and enquired whether more people had switched over to such farming, he said. Rajinderpal, who belongs to Kalalwala village of Bathinda, has produced 4 litres of rose oil from his organic farm during the past two years but the produce was lying unsold as he was not being offered a reasonable price by traders in UP. He says he started rose cultivation in 2002 for producing rose oil that initially fetched around Rs 2.90 lakh per litre. However, this time, middlemen of Kannauj were offering him only Rs 2.50 lakh. Rose oil, which has immense medicinal value besides being a favourite perfume, fetches a very high price in the international market. About two and a half dozen roses are required to produce a single drop of rose oil through the distillation process. Steam-distilled rose oil is particularly used for skin care and pharmaceuticals.
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