Prince Charles, Camilla to lunch with PM, stay at Patiala Maharaja’s residence
By ANIFriday, October 1, 2010
NEW DELHI - The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, who will arrive in New Delhi tomorrow to attend the opening of the XIXth Commonwealth Games, will have lunch with the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh on Sunday afternoon.
They will also spend Monday night with the former Maharaja of Patiala and ex-chief minister of Punjab Amarinder Singh and his wife Preneet Kaur, British High Commission sources said.
Links between the two royal families date back to the pre-colonial era.
Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall CamillaParker Bowles will have a packed itinerary during their visit to New Delhi.
On October 3, Prince Charles will be reading out the Queen’s message at the start of the Games. He will open the Games jointly with Indian President Pratibha Patil.,
The Royal couple will also spend time with a cross-section of Commonwealth Games athletes. Sources said Prince Charles would also visit the swimming heats that will be held at the Mukherjee Stadium on Monday.
They will also visit Chandigarh and Jodhpur.
The Prince of Wales will be meeting business leaders at a British High Commission hosted reception. epresentatives of leading information technology and telecom companies are expected to take part in the event.
Charles will also join a discussion on promoting transition to a low carbon economy.
As part of the golden jubilee celebrations of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Charles will meet senior directors, students and researchers from IIT, Delhi.
While in Punjab, Charles will meet young entrepreneurs and discuss ways to promote youth entrepreneurship and to launch the Global Entrepreneurship Week 2010 in India.
He is also expected to attend an eco-cities event at the Punjab Energy Development Agency.
The Duchess of Cornwall will be paying a visit to the St Stephen’s School in Chandigarh that is linked to schools in Haringey, East London under the UK-India Education and Research Initiative. She will also visit the Society of Rehabilitation of the Mentally Challenged.
In Jodhpur, the royal couple will visit the headquarters of the Indian Army’s 12 Corps, which has both formal and informal affiliations with the famed Skinner’s Horse, the Deccan Horse, the 18th Battalion, the Sikh Regiment, the Gurkha Regiment and the Parachute Regiment.
They will also visit the Veerni Women Empowerment Project and the Water Resources Centre at Tolesar Charan village to understand how rural India manage with their limited water resources. By Naveen Kapoor (ANI)
