AdminAkal Academy Reeth Kheri, Patiala, 13 Sep ’13 – The Kalgidhar Trust, Baru Sahib has been transforming rural India through its 129 Akal Academies. Akal Academy, Reeth Kheri is a unique rural school wherein 476 students travel from Patiala City everyday for their education. It has always been a challenge for school management as well as staff to provide essential filtered clean drinking water because of the severe ground water problems of this area.
Punjab & Sind Bank, took this challenge up under their CSR initiative and sourced out Switzerland made precision ultra filtered drinking water compact machines with capacity of 500 litres. per hour. The students and the parents were quite overjoyed and enthusiastic to experience this positive change that has got them an access to fresh and clean drinking water. Such was the response that Akal Academy and PSB were requested to invite Mr. M.K Jain, Executive Director, PSB who has recently joined the bank; to inaugurate this much needed machine. Mr. M.K Jain kindly consented to inaugurate this machine at a short notice and was accompanied by Mr. I.S Bhatia, G.M, PSB and Mr. S.S Kalra, ZM, PSB, Patiala. Mr. J.S Dardi, Chairman Chardikala Group of publications and also a member, Press Council of India was the guest of honour.
The guests were welcomed by a sweet group of young girls from Akal Academy who sung ‘Su-Swagatam…’ for the pleasantly surprised guests. On this happy occasion, Mr. M.K Jain said that, “I am really surprised at the quality of education and the values being imparted to rural students through Akal Academy. I was amazed at the amount of technology like E classrooms, best lab facilities, language lab and ERP systems of the school. Water being the most essential requirement of every human being is extremely important for the physical and mental growth of young children. We specially chose this Swiss made machine keeping in mind the water table pollution of this area and the challenges of maintaining equipments in rural areas. PSB started in 1908 with the intention of doing yeoman’s social service across India and this CSR initiative is a humble step towards that.”
There were hundreds of parents who attended this gathering along with Mr. BS Ahluwalia, of Synergy Solar Pvt. Limited, the providers of the machine. The function ended with a nice and touching poem by a class 7 student about the necessity of water and society’s obligation towards it.
~ Deeksha Singh
~ New Delhi, 14th Sep ’13