New President promises better deal for Caddies
Barinder Saluja, Chandigarh,April 26 : “It was the efforts of years planning and hard work which has borne fruit”, said jubillant Raja Malvinder Singh, after the results were declared at the Golf Club Chandigarh. Malvinder Singh pocketed the prestigious chair of President of Chandigarh Golf Club Ltd. by defeating Lt. Col. JS Panag by a margin of 242 votes. The counting of votes started at 9 am and in no time the result for the post of president was out. The winning candidate shook hands with Col. Panag and outgoing President BS Gill was first one to greet Raja Sahab. Though, Malvinder Singh has been branded as outsider by some of the members, in which pretext he said,”If i am an outsider then the members would have not elected me president for the fourth time. During my last time as president I was on Greens for four times in a week. This time too, I will be present in the office for a full week”. Malvinder Singh lives in Patiala and is younger brother of capt. Amarinder Singh, of Patiala Royal Family.It was a clean sweep as Malvinder Singhs team swept 10 out of 11 managing committe seats and shared the 11th seat as member executive committe. The 10 who emerged clear winners are Capt. GS Ghuman, Dr. GS Kochhar, Jasbir Singh, Col. HS Baidwan, Lt. Col. KS Thandi, Ravibir Singh Grewal, Dr. BR Jain, SR Sharma, Sanjit Singh Bala, Gursharan Singh Sandhu, whereas Sardul Singh Gill shared the 11th seat with Anil Gakhar, as both pocketed 424 votes. With two sharing the 11th seat, it was decided to give Six-Six months term to both of them starting with Anil Gakhar.
Newly elected President immediately came into action and emphasized on the pathetic condition of the Caddies of the club. He suggested to increase the daily fees of the caddies as they live in pathetic conditions and presently are being paid very less. “If you give peanuts, you get monkeys”, this is how he summed up the Caddie problem. He also declared to implement five year rolling plan for the course. He plans to get David Hemstock’s team of designers from England. The team has designed 200 courses around the world, including Ambey Valley golf Course, considering amongst the best in Asia.
In Picture, winning team with Newly Elected President Malvinder Singh (extreme right) posing after being elected.