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An era ends: Vimla Dang passes
away
WSN Network
 AMRITSAR: Well
known communist leader and former MLA Vimla Dang passed away at the
age of 83 at a private hospital here on Saturday after a life widely
seen as lived in the spirit of selfless public service. President of
the Punjab Istri Sabha, she was admitted to the hospital on May 7.
Her husband,
former MLA and minister Satya Pal Dang, lit the funeral pyre at the
Chheharta cremation ground.
CPI Secretary
A.B. Bardhan, Punjab CPI secretary Bhupinder Sambar, CPM Punjab’s
Mangat Ram Pasla and many other leaders attended the funeral. Senior
leaders including L K Advani later visited the family to condole the
death.
Vimla, born in
1926 in a middle class Kashmiri migrant family in Allahabad, joined
the Progressive Movement at an early age, becoming activists of the
Friends of the Soviet Union Organisation. As a college student in
Lahore, she went to Chittagong and raised large sums of money for
famine relief in 1946. She has even sent to jail several times.
In 1952, she
married social activist Satya Pal Dang and shifted to Chheharta,
Amritsar. There, she organised the women’s movement and participated
in the trade union struggle along with her husband, fighting for the
rights of the downtrodden.
She was elected
to the Punjab Assembly in 1992. She was also president of the Punjab
Istri Sabha Relief Trust and Aruna Asaf Ali Trust to help families
of victims of terrorism, handicapped and the downtrodden.
In 1997, she
along with her husband resigned from active politics — the national
council of CPI — but worked incessantly for the betterment of
society .
Many said she
and Satya Pal Dang did not have a child, but she epitomised
motherhood, pouring affection on orphans. She was largely seen as an
example of honesty and simplicity.
13
May 2009
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