CKD finally passes ₹149-crore budget at its third meeting
› This year, we have earmarked ₹5 crore for waiving fee of poor students and ₹3.5 crore for the development of schools in villages. NARINDER SINGH KHURANA, honorary secretary
AMRITSAR: After failing to pass its annual budget during the last two meetings, adjourned amid uproar and confusion over some issues, the Chief Khalsa Diwan (CKD) Charitable Society finally approved its ₹149-crore budget for 2018-19 at its third meeting held at Gurdwara Kalgidhar here on Sunday.
Usually, the 115-year-old society passes its budget in March, but this year it was unable to do so as the it had run into a trouble after an objectionable video of its previous chief Charanjit Singh Chadha with a woman principal of a CKD-run school had gone viral on December 26, 2017.
Following this, Chadha was sacked and Dr Santokh Singh was elected president on March 26.
The new president, Dr Santokh Singh, held his first meeting to pass the budget on March 31, but it was adjourned as a number of members could neither get copies of the budget, nor the desired time to comprehend it.
However, a budget-on-account for three months was approved to meet day-to-day expenses.
The second meeting held on June 16 was also adjourned after mudslinging forcing Dr Sanokh Singh to announce that he was resigning.
However, later he retracted his decision to quit. The furore had started over 20 ‘special invitees’ to the meeting.
However, previous president Chadha used to have ‘special invitees’ at all executive meetings.
“On Sunday, a general body meeting was held at 10.30 am. The meeting first decided to include special invitees in all executive meetings. After this, the meeting passed the budget unanimously,” said Jaswinder Singh Dhillon, an executive member.
The CKD’s honorary secretary Narinder Singh Khurana said, “This year, we have kept more funds for upgrading the society’s educational institutions. ₹5 crore have been earmarked for waiving fee of poor students, ₹3.5 crore for the development of schools in villages, ₹3.8 crore for Adarsh schools and ₹2.9 crore for providing free books to students of Classes 1 to 8 .”