The Punjab government appointed Guninderjit Singh Jawandha as the chairperson of Punjab Information and Communication Technology Corporation Limited and Governor Banwarilal Purohit questioned the move.
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After the Punjab government appointed Guninderjit Singh Jawandha as the chairperson of Punjab Information and Communication Technology Corporation Limited and Governor Banwarilal Purohit questioned the move, Jawanda has become the talk of the town.
“I have been made aware that the name of Jawandha appears in a kidnapping and property grabbing case,” the governor wrote to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.
Jawandha is the current chairman of Bhai Gurdas Group of Institutions (BGGI), which has seven different colleges in Sangrur and Patiala. His father, Hakam Singh Jawandha, opened this institute in 2002 when technical education hype had just started in Punjab.
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Information from residents revealed that initially, the BGGI had opened one college offering bachelor’s degrees in computer applications (BCA) and business administration (BBA). Within one year, it opened a nursing institute in Patiala.
Local sources stated that the Jawandha family once used to be cosy with Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, a former Sangrur MP who was a senior Shiromani Akali Dal leader but was expelled from the party in February 2020. Dhindsa now has his own party SAD (Sanyukt), which had an alliance with the BJP in the last Assembly polls.
Jawandha has been working with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for many years and was a joint state secretary of its trade wing in 2021. Sources revealed that he was also a frontrunner to contest from the Sangrur constituency, but the party chose Narinder Kaur Bharaj, who later became the youngest MLA in the House. Jawandha used to appear in news debates about Sangrur ahead of the Punjab polls and greatly praised Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
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In September 2018, his father, Hakam Singh Jawandha, died, and he took over as the chairman of the BGGI, affiliated with Punjab Technical University. The institute had opened private engineering, law, nursing, pharmacy, and polytechnic colleges about a decade ago and received good student responses.
These days, the family also has an IELTS institute in the city because students are more interested in moving out to other countries, revealed sources. While the BGGI is located in the city outskirts on the Patiala road, the IELTS institute is in the city area, sources confirmed.
Sources added that initially, the family had opened the institutes in partnership with Sangrur’s Manshahia family. In 2020, a few of the Manshahia family members levelled severe allegations against Jawandha that he had illegally kidnapped one person from their family and kept with him for months — from September 23 to December 16. They also claimed themselves as patrons of Bhai Gurdas Educational Trust.
However, at the same time, Jawandha had also clarified that the Manshahia family had nothing in the trust and he was the chairman of the BGGI, calling all charges baseless. Sources revealed that a court case on this issue is also going on between the two groups.
Surinder Lamba, SSP Sangrur, about the police case against Jawandha.”We need to find out because no case was registered after I joined as the SSP; it must be an old case. We are finding out the details,” said Lamba.
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In October 2021, Bhai Gurdas College of Engineering in Sangrur was in the news after a clash broke out between students in the boys’ hostel after Pakistan defeated India in a T20 World Cup match. The matter was sorted out after the police, as well as the management of the college, intervened.
The Jawandha family hails from Ubhawal village of Sangrur and has long been famous for their philanthropy. “They keep on supporting poor families, donate sewing machines to women, support education of the poor, give funds for many village works,” said a Sangrur resident.
