54 / April 2016 / Indian Plumbing Today

IPA inaugurated its 15th Chapter in Rai-pur on 20th February, 2016. Around 150 delegates including architects, en-gineers, contractors and builders from Raipur, Bilaspur, Nagpur, Bhubaneswar and trade associates attended the event — Mr. Sudhakaran Nair - President, IPA; Mr. BSA Narayan - VP, IPA; Mr. C. S. Gupta - Hon. Sec., IPA; Mr. John Joseph - Hon Jt. Sec., IPA and members of the NEC - P. Ramachandran,

M.K. Gupta, Manoj Mathur, Minesh Shah and Avinash Laddha attended the Oath- taking Ceremony and the formal launch of Raipur Chapter. John Joseph administered the Oath of Office. The team at Raipur consists of Mr. Sanjeev Rungta, Chairman; Ar. Sandeep Shrivastava, VC; Mr. Man-ish Rathi, Hon. Sec.; Mr. Dinesh Agarwal, Hon. Jt. Sec., Mr. Prafull Agarwal, Hon. Treasurer; Ar. Hiten Kothari, ECM; Ar. Navin Sharma, ECM and Mr. R. N. Kon-her, NEC Member.

Shri Kedar Kashyap, Hon’ble Minister for Tribal Welfare, Govt. of Chhattisgarh was the Guest of Honour and Shri Pramod Dube - Mayor of Raipur Municipal Cor-

poration was the Special Guest.

Mr. Sanjeev Rungta, in his welcome ad-dress, said that one of his goals as Chapter chairman would be to increase awareness of the importance of plumbing in the state of Chhattisgarh especially in Raipur city as the city is designated as a smart city. He said that the new committee faced great challenges: as all from the commit-tee were unclear about their roles but were confident that they would find the right path with the help of seniors. He further elaborated that he needed to identify and expand the benefits of being a member of IPA to ensure growth in membership. He also said that he needed to expand knowl-edge-sharing opportunities – not with just an annual conference, but in multiple con-ferences throughout the year depending on demand from members and other industry partners.

Mr Avinash Laddha, Member – NEC, ex-plained the process of forming the chap-ter and called upon the guests to become members of IPA. He explained that IPA has only a one-time membership fee.

Launch Of 15 th Chapter Of IPA in Raipur

Raipur Chapter team with IPA office-bearers

Indian Plumbing Today / April 2016 / 55

Mr. Sudhakaran Nair, President – IPA and Chairman, WPC explained the objectives of IPA and the vision of IPA for ‘Redefin-ing Plumbing Standards in India.’ He also explained the necessity of plumbing edu-cation in India to improve dignity of the plumbing profession. In his talk SN also elaborated on the role of WPC of which he is also the first Chairman from Asia.

The Chief Guest, Shri Kedar Kashyap stressed on the need to educate local plumbers also in rural areas so that they can use more water and energy efficient products in their area. He also requested the newly-formed Raipur chapter to work in this direction. He was also wondering if some programmes could be designed for inclusion in technical courses at different levels. He wished the new chapter lots of success and assured all the support to its activities.

Shri Pramod Dube was sure that the IPA Chapter in Raipur would be of use to him in his mission of creating a smart city. He also wanted training imparted to plumb-ers on efficient plumbing that could help in saving water and energy.

Mr. Manish Rathi, Hon. Sec. expressed his gratitude to everyone for attending this event. He also thanked KiTEC Industries (India) Private Limited for their support in forming the chapter and for organising this function.

An interactive seminar was arranged on

the subject – ‘Role of Plumbing in Smart cities and in Swachh Bharat Program’. Mr. BSA Narayan, Mr. M. K. Gupta, Mr. John Joseph, Mr P. Ramachandran (all from IPA) and Ar. Manonjay Rath interacted and answered questions on various aspects of plumbing.

Mr Avinash Laddha receiving the Guest of Honour

Shri Kedar Kashyap Ji, Hon. Minister with Mr. Sudhakaran

Mr Avinash Laddha addressing the gathering