Source: SikhNet/The Tribune

http://www.sikhnet.com/sikhnet/news.nsf/NewsArchive/EE656F70AEFEA862872571680063AD76

On May 8, 2006 The Tribune reported, "With the French government refusing to allow Sikh students to wear turbans in government-run schools, a group of Sikhs settled in the country are on a missionary visit to India to raise funds for setting up International Khalsa College for such students near Paris. The General Secretary, Turban Action Committee, France, and vice-president of the proposed college, Mr Iqbal Singh Bhatti, today visited the Lyallpur Khalsa College here to discuss the matter with Mr Balbir Singh, former MP and President of the Lyallpur Khalsa College’s Governing Council. Talking to mediapersons, Mr Bhatti said a land measuring 3000 sq mt had been purchased at a cost of Euros 8 lakh for setting up the college. The funds, he added, were collected from 254 affected families and other donors. He said the project of constructing three buildings for setting up a primary, high and college-level institute had been finalised. The project, he added, would cost Euros 49 lakh. Mr Bhatti lamented that Sikh families in France were finding it difficult to educate their wards in schools run by the government owing to a restriction on wearing turbans. He claimed that as many as 15 students had been expelled from various schools there for violating the rule."