Baton Relay (QBR) in Himachal Pradesh at Mehatpur in Una district was marked with festivity

From Our Correspondent
Una 4 July 4, 2010---The arrival of Queen’s Baton Relay (QBR) in Himachal Pradesh at Mehatpur in Una district was marked with festivity and euphoria amidst beating of drums and loud applause by large number of children who had gathered at the reception venue to witness the moment.The Queen’s Baton Relay, which arrived here from Chandigarh, was received by chief parliamentary secretary Satpal Singh Satti along with chairman of Una Zila Parishad, Balbir Singh Bagga, nodal officer and director, youth services and sports, JR Katwal, deputy commissioner KR Bharti, SP Santosh Patial, local people and senior officers of the district.Sushil Bhardwaj; Vijay Rana,vice-president Himachal Pradesh Olympic Association (HPOA); and Manish Sharma joint secretary of HPOA were also present at the ceremony. The school children queued up along both side of the road with Tricolor in their hands welcomed the QBR right from Mehatpur to the Indira Gandhi Stadium to mark the celebration.
“It is a joyous moment for me to be a part of the QBR and the first opportunity to carry the Queen’s Baton in Dev Bhoomi Himachal” said Deepak Thakur, member of Indian hockey team, hailing from Una. Padamshree Charanjeet Singh, who led Indian hockey team in 1964 World Cup, Arjuna Awardee Mohinder Lal (shooting), international players Harsh Tripathi (handball), Surjeet Singh (volley Ball), Vinod Kumar of State Olympic Association, and Vijay Kumar, the representative of Hero Honda, the official Sponsors of QBR, expressed their pleasure to be part of QBR.The IG stadium wore a bridal look and became the first such venue in the state to greet QBR in its three-day voyage covering almost half of Himachal Pradesh traversing through the districts of Kangra at Dharamsala, Hamirpur, Bilaspur, Shimla, Solan and Sirmaur to be finally handed over to Uttarakhand authorities on 6th of this month.