Mayor James Valentine, Deputy Mayor Carl Meader, Bedford Labour Party Borough Group Leader Cllr Sue Oliver, Cllr Kay Burley, Cllr Mohammad Nawaz, SEVA Trust UK Chairman Charan Kanwal Singh Sekhon and community reps.
Bedford (UK) – SEVA Trust UK team lead by their Chairman Charan Kanwal Singh Sekhon held a meeting with the Mayor of Kempston Town Cllr James Valentine and team of Councillors at Guru Gonind Singh Gurdwara, Kempston, Bedford for issues faced by Punjabi community for travelling to Puniab.
Local Community leaders and reps also attended. Mayor and his team of Councillors visited the Gurdwara to meet with the congregation members and listen to their concerns.
The Mayor was surprised to know there are no direct flights form London to Amritsar in spite of very large Punjabi population and he pledged his full support to this campaign jointly lead by two NGOs SEVA Trust UK & Amritsar Vikas Manch.
Raising this issue with the Mayor, Mr Sekhon explained that there is large population from Punjabi and Indian Dispora in Bedfordshire. 2011 UK census recorded 1,451,862 residents of Indian origin in East of England alone with over 50% from Punjabi origin. These figures have grown significantly in the last 8 years and if we include London population these figures are much much higher. There is a huge travel demand from London to Amritsar, but lack of direct connectivity means another 12 hours journey time for travelling via Delhi. There are a lot of youth who want to connect to their roots but from the feedback we had they absolutely hate spending 24hrs constant travel and very tiring journey that is putting off so many youth and travellers who want to visit more often. Direct flights from London will not only help Indian Punjabi dispora in the UK but will also offer an excellent connectivity with Canadian and US airports via London.The travel data shows huge demand for London Amritsar route said Mr Sekhon.
Mr Sekhon thanked MP for Bedford Mohammed Yasin, MP for Slough Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, Birmingham MP Preet Kaur Gill, MP Seema Malhotra, MP Virendra Sharma, MP for Amritsar Gurjeet Singh Aujla, the UK BJP President Kuldeep Shekhawat and all UK Gurdwara Committees and organisations and Amritsar Vikas Manch for their support for SEVA Trust efforts on this issue and for their own initivities.
The Mayor said as the demand is coming from so many residents at grass root levels, it clearly shows the real need. He said he will support this campaign and work closely with SEVA Trust and local residents to raise thier concerns with higher authorities and help to liaise with the British airlines to consider this route. All present at the meeting pledged to work together to turn this genuine demand into reality. The group agreed to organise further meetings involving regional community reps, and youth leaders from all organisations & NGOs of East of England.
