Chandigarh (Indo-Pak border, Gurdaspur), May 9
This village on the banks of Ravi, barely a few kilometres from the Indo-Pak border, shares its name with the capital city, startling visitors. The name also prompts wags to quip that the village is the best kept secret because otherwise the neighbouring state of Haryana would have claimed long ago that Chandigarh had already passed to Punjab.
Cities in different parts of the world establish bonds by exchanging symbolic keys and promoting visits by Mayors and citizens. Now the capital city can also do something similar and promote its namesake.
With a population of around 1500 persons, the village of Chandigarh came up in the late 1980s after a
devastating flood washed away several villages. “All of us came from different villages. The river changed its course and while we reclaimed our fields the abadi areas were submerged. That is when we decided to settle in a new place,” recalls Bhajan Singh.
The homeless villagers requested for vacant land from the panchayats of Marara and Adalatgarh and started building their houses. “Then the question arose about what we should call our village. Each one of us wanted it to be renamed after our lost village. But finally a consensus was reached that since all of us had come from different places to settle at a common location, we will name it Chandigarh, just like the Chandigarh city. In Chandigarh city everyone came from outside to make it their home. We had the same situation here,” he added.
Chandigarh village is now a cluster of pucca houses where people of at least five lost villages live. “Our fields are still there where we had them earlier. We just live here. And unlike Chandigarh city where you have professionals and businessmen, we are all farmers of Chandigarh,” beamed Chanan Singh, a panchayat member of the village. The village has its own panchayat now and is registered as a separate entity in revenue records.
The comparison with Chandigarh city naturally ends with the name. The village has few basic amenities. “The sewerage system is open, there is no street lighting, we only have a high school and there is no college. Other than a dispensary where a nurse appears after gaps of eight days or so, there is hardly any health facility,” says Bhajan Singh.
