Martyr Udham Singh’s town a picture of neglect

Sushil Goyal

Tribune News Service

Sunam (Sangrur), December 19

Despite state’s Finance Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa being the MLA of Sunam since 2000, the local authorities have been facing shortage of funds to execute development works.

This city of Shaheed Udham Singh has a special status in the country, but a befitting memorial for the great martyr is yet to be set here. An announcement promising the same was made by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal during a function to mark the martyrdom day of Shaheed Udham Singh, back on July 31, 2010, here.

Infrastructure

Residents have been demanding setting up of a fire station for the past over 15 years. Whenever a fire breaks out in the city, one or two fire engines from Sangrur are sent to the spot.

The local bus stand too is in a state of neglect. Rehris and other vehicles can be seen haphazardly parked on the premises, leading to a chaos-like situation.

Meanwhile, the 50-bed local Civil Hospital has been facing a shortage of emergency medical officers, medical officers and specialists. Posts of anaesthetist, radiologist and paediatrician are lying vacant these days.

City roads are in a poor state, including the Geeta Bhawan road and the railway station-bus stand road that are widely plied upon. The Municipal Council (MC) has earmarked just Rs 43 lakh in its current annual budget for the repair and construction of roads.

The city has 40 schools, including two government senior secondary schools, nine government primary schools and three private aided schools. But, there is no government high school here.

There is no shortage of teachers in these schools. However, 40-year-old Shaheed Udham Singh Government College has been facing an acute shortage of regular lecturers.

Out of the total staff strength of 32 lecturers, it has four-five regular lecturers, eight part-time lecturers and the rest are guest faculty lecturers.

Financial condition

The financial health of the MC is not good due to which it has earmarked little funds for city’s development. A sum of Rs 7 crore, out of the total annual budget of Rs 11.54 crore, will be used for paying salaries and other benefits to the serving and retired MC staff this financial year. Besides, a sum of Rs 2.27 crore will be used for paying electricity bills and maintenance of water supply, sewerage and streetlights. In the name of development works, Rs 1.28 crore has been earmarked, which includes Rs 65 lakh for the uplift of slum areas.

Drinking water, sewerage and sanitation
Residents residing in 92 per cent area of the city are being provided piped drinking water facility through 73-km-long pipelines with three overhead service reservoirs and 11 tube wells. A project to provide piped drinking water to residents in leftover areas has been initiated at a cost of Rs 50 lakh.

About 80 per cent area of the area has been covered under the sewerage facility. There is no plan to install sewer lines for the rest of the area at this stage. However, a sewage treatment plant being set up and the main pumping station for disposal of sewage water is almost complete. The council has reportedly been facing shortage of sanitation workers. It has only 65 regular sanitation workers and 35 workers of mohalla sudhar committees but it requires at least 50 more workers for proper cleanliness of the city. There are about 25 open garbage depots with no boundary walls. Due to this, garbage is found littered here and there.

The council has no JCB machine and dumper placer to handle the garbage problem in a proper manner. Spread over 2.5 acres, the main garbage dumping ground of the council is situated on the Sunam-Bakhshiwala road here. As the areas near the dumping ground are very populated, residents have been facing problems.

Political graph

As Sunam is represented by Punjab Finance Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa as MLA, political scene in the city remains hectic. Whenever he visits the city, a large number of Akalis visit him with representations to get their works done. During the 2008 elections, there were 19 wards. The Congress had won only one seat while the BJP had emerged victorious in four wards. Except one candidate of the SAD, the remaining SAD candidates had contested as Independents and most of them had emerged victorious. The SAD captured the post of president.