Presidential candidates B S Gill (left) and Col J S Panag (retd). (Express Photo by Kamleshwar singh)
It will be a fight between four-time Chandigarh Golf Club (CGC) president Birinder Singh Gill and war veteran Lt Col (Retd) J S Panag for the post of president in the elections to the CGC on Sunday. While 58-year-old Gill, who was president of the club from 2009-2011 and 2014-2016, will be eyeing a fifth term as president, 77-year-old Panag, a veteran of the 1962 Indo-China and 1971 Indo-Pak wars, will be contesting for the post of president for the third time. If Gill wins for the fifth term, he will become the second-longest serving president of the club with the club rules of a maximum two consecutive terms after former IAS officer GS Sandhu with eight terms. Apart from the two, a total of 15 candidates will be contesting for the 11-member executive committee of the club, which has more than 1800 members, including Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh, former Punjab Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal, legendary Milkha Singh and former Indian all-rounder Kapil Dev.
“My main focus will be no wasteful expenditure and only to be concerned about Chandigarh Golf Club. We have to be careful with the finances of the club and carry on the good work done by the past committees. The Junior Golf Development programme will also be a priority for us. During my tenure for four terms, we always concentrated on having transparency in financial matters and this time, too, we will seek votes on these matters. Whatever I did, it was because of the faith shown by members,” said 58-year-old Gill, a lawyer with an LLM degree in environmental laws from Columbia University and brother of former Punjab DGP, the late KPS Gill.
Last year, Ravibir Singh Grewal defeated Ravinder Singh Virk by 94 votes for the post of president. Earlier in February, three-time captain of the course, 53-year-old Sandeep Singh Sandhu decided to contest the polls against Gill before pulling out later. Last month, Panag, who has been a three-time member of the executive committee, threw his hat in the race for president. While the Gill camp has fielded 11 candidates, including Kulbir Singh Brar, Lt Col H S Chahal and Amarinder Singh Aulakh, from the previous year’s committee for the 11-member executive committee, the Panag camp has fielded three candidates, namely Col Iqbal Singh, Col B S Rangi and Jagdeep Singh Jaggi, with Mahavir Singh Jagdev contesting independently.
“Our aim will be a better club with better playing conditions and focus on the economy of expenditure. The club needs to save money in certain areas and we will put every detail about the expenditure on the website. Besides that the membership list with seniority of members will be displayed on the website. If a member posts any enquiry to president or executive committee, the reply would be given in 15 days. Our focus will on promoting golf in schools and colleges,” said Panag, who was chairman, bar and catering committee, during Malwinder Singh’s term as president of the club.
Candidates for the executive committee are Amarinder S Aulakh, Col AD Singh, Amarbir Singh Lehal, Balbir Singh Mangat, Dr GS Kochhar, Kulbir Singh Brar, Col BS Rangi, Col Iqbal Singh, Lt Col HS Chahal, Jagdeep Singh, Manjit Singh Sarang, Jaspal Singh Sidhu, Mahavir Singh Jagdev, Col Prabhjot Singh Mangat, Sanjit Singh Bala.