By Dan Stacey

Copyright expressandstar

Paul Uppal, former Conservative MP for Wolverhampton South West, will head a team of volunteers to the region, that has suffered serious flooding recently, in November.

It will be the latest in a number of initiatives by Black Country folk, following on from work by the Midland Langar Seva Society in Walsall, and 80-year-old Bilston resident Ji Singh.

It is expected that, combined, the initiatives will raise more than £200,000 in total.

Alongside trustees from the Guru Teg Bahadur Gurdwara on Upper Villiers Street, Graisley, Mr Uppal will travel to the region with a focus of providing help to agricultural areas that have suffered the loss of livestock and land as a result of the floods, as well as an increased threat of disease.

“By early November the floods will have subsided, and from the people we’ve spoken to that will be when it’s more acute,” the former-MP said. “A lot of livestock has been lost and a lot of people in Punjab are farmers, so it’ll be about us providing relief to those people when the livestock has gone down so much, as well as there potentially being more disease around.

“All the trustees that are going are doing so at their own expense and will be providing their own accommodation, so we’re looking for anybody able to fund themselves and provide any expertise.

“I know there is a big Punjabi community in the West Midlands, so if anyone wants to approach us we’d love to talk about what help they can provide.

“At the moment, as with all these things, there’s a great rush of relief, but we’re going to be there to pick up the pieces for the long term. Our approach is going to be more strategic.

“It’s a very agricultural area, so anyone with experience of delivering relief to that kind of place would be useful, or anyone who feels they have good contacts in Punjab who can make sure the resources get to the right people.

“Any medical expertise would be greatly appreciated too.

The former Wolverhampton South West MP went on to explain why the planned trip to the Punjab is of extra importance to him and his family.

“We donated all of our family land in Uppal Khalsa, Jalandhar to the village for them to build a football stadium,” Mr Uppal said. “We want to give things back. The Punjabi community over here has been very successful and sometimes something that isn’t seen is what we give back [to the Punjab].

“A lot of Uppal’s contributed to building a girls school in our family village in India, and this is part of our ethos of matching our good work in the UK by giving back from a historical perspective to the Punjab.

“To make sure the money is spent correctly I’m going to go out there myself with a group of other trustees, and through my past experience [as an MP] I have contacts within the Indian government that will help.

“I’ll very much be relying on the expertise of the trustees and anyone else that accompanies us when it comes to putting our resources to the best use.”