Sindhutai Sapkal, 'Mom to thousands of orphans', passes away
Darpan News Desk IANS, 04 Jan, 2022 11:26 AM
Pune, Jan 4 (IANS) Veteran social worker Sindhutai Sapkal - known as the 'Mother to thousands of orphans' - passed away following a cardiac arrest, a family friend said.
She was 73, and breathed her last at Galaxy Hospital where she was under treatment for almost a month.
Maai - as she was revered by her foster children, is survived by her sole biological daughter Mamta.
Sindhutai's last rites shall be performed on Wednesday morning at Manjari, near Hadapsar on the outskirts of Pune, the friend said.
She was conferred the Padma Shri award in November 2021 for her selfless services for orphans and abandoned children since nearly five decades.
She reached Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana, by air in the morning from where she headed straight to her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's cottage located amid forests of pine and cedar on the suburbs of the Himachal Pradesh capital.
Channi took oath of office along with his two deputies -- one a Jat Sikh and another belonging to the Hindu community -- at a simple ceremony here in the Punjab capital that was delayed for 20 minutes owing to the late arrival of party leader Rahul Gandhi.
Jasbir Singh Virk, president of Bhartiya Sikh Sangthan, has underlined the need to intensify the ongoing farmers' agitation and said that there was a need to shore up strength at the Delhi borders.
Punjab BJP President Ashwani Sharma told IANS that to control infighting in its party state unit, the Congress leadership made Channi ji (Charanjit Singh Channi) the Punjab Chief Minister but insulted the Dalit community by not allowing him to lead the party in the upcoming state Assembly polls.
The government and drug controller's office will have to take a decision on the third booster dose based on data and cases as times goes on and including how effective the vaccine is on the Delta virus variant, he added.
