Forum for Welfare of Senior Citizens celebrated its 28th Annual Day on Sunday, the 17th March 2024. This is one of the major functions of the Forum, which has about 580 members. Lot of preparation
goes into this celebration having items like honouring senior citizens over the age of 80 years and 90 years, taking out a souvenir, cultural programme, etc.
Sh. Saurabh Bhardwaj, Hon’ble Minister, Health, Urban Development, etc., Delhi Govt. was invited to be the Chief Guest but he could not come that day as he had to suddenly go out of Delhi. Sh. Yogesh Aggarwal, ex-Managing Director, State Bank of India and Ms. Ashu Thakur, our Municipal Councillor were the Guests of Honour. About 175 senior citizens attended the function at Balwant Rai Mehta Vidya Bhawan Auditorium.
Registration started at 10.30 A.M. and the programme started at 11.00 A.M., which was compared by Mrs. Meena Kapur. Sh. Yogesh Aggarwal and Ms. Ashu Thakur lighted the ceremonial lamp in the presence of Sh. V.K. Gauba, Mrs. Sneh Gauba, Mr. V.N. Prasad and Sh. S.R. Sharma.
Eleven members of the Forum had expired during the last one year. Sh. Alok Goyal paid homage to the departed souls on behalf of the Forum and the audience observed two minutes’ silence as a mark of respect to the departed souls. President, Mrs. Sneh Gauba, welcomed both the Guests of Honour.
The Annual Report of the Forum was presented by the Patron Sh. V.K. Gauba, who mentioned that the Organization was able to add more than 60 new members during the past one year because of number of activities of the Forum, which included two picnics during the last year and travel to Kashmir and Vietnam in groups. The Forum also organized a Property Tax Camp when MCD Officials came to the Recreation Centre to collect tax.
Mr. Gauba also mentioned that there was lot of financial burden as the Delhi Govt. had not taken any steps for release of financial grant for more than 3 years. Also that the use of the Pantry at Recreation Centre was not open to us in spite of the fact that it remains locked and is not used by a parallel senior citizens’ body, who are allotted the pantry.
Ms. Ashu Thakur and the other Guest of Honour addressed the audience. Fourteen senior citizens, one of age 90+ and 13 of age 80+, were honoured by presentation of shawls. The citation was read out by Mrs. Madhu Goyal. Sh. A.M. Rao spoke a few words as response on behalf of the recipients. The Souvenir was prepared by the Souvenir Committee headed by Dr. Veena Kapoor. It was formally released by Sh. Yogesh Aggarwal, Guest of Honour.
Two resolutions – one about income tax for senior citizens of the age of 70 years and above and the second on GST on health insurance were read out by Mrs. Shalini Jawa and Sh. V.K. Malhotra. The resolutions were passed by the audience unanimously.The first item on the Cultural programme was dance performance by little Ramya Kapur, who gave a splendid show followed by songs by two teachers of Balwantrai Mehta Vidya Bhawan. The programme also included a play by our members under the able direction of Mrs. Reeta Malhotra and Sh. Manoj Kumar. Ramya’s performance and the 30 minute play were highly appreciated by the audience. Sh. V.N. Prasad presented the vote of thanks.
There was a lucky draw, in which the prizes went to Mrs. Honey Behl and Mrs. Manju Minglani. The programme ended with singing of National Anthem followed by lunch, which was enjoyed by all.
