Surjit Patar cremated with state honours in Ludhiana

Surjit Patar cremated with state honours in Ludhiana

Ludhiana: Punjabi poet and Padma Shri Dr.Surjit Patar was cremated with full state honors at the crematorium of Model Town Extension of Ludhiana. The 79-year-old Patar died on Saturday at his residence near the Barewal Colony here.

The last journey of Dr Surjit Patar was taken out from his house to the cremation ground in Model Town. CM Bhagwant Mann also reached there and shouldered the bier. CM Mann also met the family of Dr Patar and shared his condolences. He got very emotional while shouldering the bier of Dr Patar and bid him a tearful final farewell. People raised slogans, ‘long live Patar Sahib’ and ‘long live the protector of Punjabi Maa Boli’. On this occasion AAP MP Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal was also present.

A large number of mourners, including Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and local MLAs, paid their last respects to the famous Punjabi poet. Mann,

whose eyes welled up, also shouldered Patar’s bier at the Model Town cremation ground here.

The funeral pyre was lit by Patar’s sons Ankur Singh Patar and Manraj Singh Patar. Speaking to reporters later, Mann announced that the state government would start the Patar award in the memory of the poet.

“I used to quote Patar sahib’s poems in my speeches. Today, I do not have any words to say,” the chief minister said. The award will have a prize money of Rs 1 lakh and will be presented annually to emerging poets by the Punjab government, he said.

Students from Class 8 to graduation level will be allowed to participate in the competition to win this award and a panel will be formed to choose the winner, Mann said.

He added that the aim of this award will be to inspire youth to take interest in literature. Patar, who died in his sleep on Saturday, had received the Padma Shri in the field of literature and education in 2012. He was the president of the Punjab Arts Council and Punjabi Sahit Akademi.

The poet and writer had been awarded with the Sahitya Akademi Award, Panchnad Puruskar, Saraswati Samman and the Kusumagraj Literary award.

Patar’s poetic works include ‘Hawa Vich Likhe Harf’, ‘Hanere Vich Sulagdi Varanmala’, ‘Patjhar Di Pazeb’, ‘Lafzaan Di Dargah’ and ‘Surzameen’.

From Patar village in Jalandhar district, he did his graduation from Randhir college in Kapurthala and PhD on “Transformation of Folklore in Guru Nanak Vani” from the Guru Nanak Dev University.

A panel will be formed for the ‘Patar Award’. Litterateurs will be included in this and emerging poets will take part in the competition to win the award. Apart from this, a competition will also be organized for graduation level students. CM Mann said that the aim of this award will be to inspire the youth to read Dr Surjit Patar, to take interest in the literature, and they will become writers and poets like him too.

He said that Dr Patar used to say that the Punjabi language is not part of Artificial Intelligence, we will do our best to take our mother language forward in every field. He said that whatever will be done to honour this ‘proud son of Punjabi maa boli’, will be the service of the Punjabi language itself.