Bhai Trilochan Singh Panesar

Bhai Trilochan Singh Panesar also known as Veerji (18 November 1937 – 19 March 2010) was a social worker in India.

He is famously known as Jhaaroo (broom) Wale Veerji as he made it his mission to clean all the major historical Gurdwaras in Delhi.

He organised his team of volunteers to prepare food whole day and feed thousands of people through Langar (community kitchen) every morning, in front of Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib, Chandni Chowk, Delhi.

Singh retired as a technical officer with the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, New Delhi.

Veerji was deeply influenced by the teachings of Sikh Gurus, Bhai Kanhaiya, and Mother Teresa.

Noted columnist Khushwant Singh wrote a column in The Tribune in September 2002 appreciating his work with the article "No One Will Go Hungry" ([1]) after seeing his volunteers distribute food to pilgrims in Sach Khand Express train.

He discouraged people from drawing commercial benefit from sale of Sikh religious texts and instead distributed them free of cost.

He organized camps for the inmates of Tihar Jail, New Delhi, and many jails in states such as Bihar and Madhya Pradesh in which free eye check-up and distribution of spectacles, scanning and treatment for tuberculosis, and distribution of clothes for inmates was organized.

He and his teams cremate unclaimed dead bodies in various mortuaries around the city with the help of Department of Police, Delhi.

He got many tube wells dug in the city to provide water for drinking and cleaning.

The last project he started was the construction of a multi-storeyed bath room block building in the Gurudwara Bangla Sahib near Cannaught Place, New Delhi.

He also worked to provide relief during events such as 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, bomb blasts at Sarojini Nagar, New Delhi, Bihar floods in September 2008.

Veerji was born in Mandalay in Burma; it is said that in 1942 some of his family members were killed during the Japanese bombing.

Veerji joined PWD Punjab, and was involved in survey work in Rohtang Pass.

Suffering bad words, without reacting is real tapasya(strenuous worship).

If you are in a great problem, and cannot get any results, go to a butchery, buy a pregnant cow, or an animal about to be butchered.

People who respect the way shown by him for humanitarian services continue to contribute their energies in the mission started by him.