Batala’s ‘Waterman’ Kanav Bhatia

These days youngsters are more aware of the term ‘civic sense’ than ever before. Batala’s Qila Mandi resident Kanav Bhatia was a much harried man as he desperately tried to get the tubewell of his locality in working order. Around 10,000 residents spread across four wards were dependent on this utility. The tubewell had been non-functioning for the last 18 months, thus forcing the residents to stand in serpentine queues to get their daily dose of water from a MC tap which, in any case, worked in fits and starts. There was also a hand pump nearby, but it broke down as the crowd swelled. Well heeled people like Bhatia got submersible pumps installed at their homes to overcome the problem. However, the lower income strata suffered. An anguished Bhatia, having a finger on the pulse of poor, wrote innumerable letters to the civic body. As expected, all of these went unanswered. The young man was not at all amused. He knew the MC officials seldom react to such requests. He then decided to lead a protest of 500 people. Even that failed to do the trick. Politicians were roped in but that too did not work as everyone had his own agenda and providing water was the last on thir list. Finally, a livid Bhatia decided to approach the Punjab Water Supply and Sewerage Board in Batala. He curtly told them he was left with no option except to approach the mediapersons to expose the laxity of officialdom. That turned out to be the trigger. The cog had fallen in place and the wheel started moving. Last week, officials of the Water Supply Department located and rectified the fault. There were lots of cheers for Bhatia and an equal number of jeers for the MC. He has now become a hero in his locality, the Batala version of Robin Hood. The young man is now much in demand in wards where water supply is erratic. “The MC authorities fail to understand that water is life’s matter and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water. Thousands have lived without love, none without water,” said ‘Waterman’ Bhatia, a sobriquet given to him by his neighbours. The net result of Bhatia’s efforts is that his voice is now heard loud and clear in the corridors of the MC. As the saying goes, “In time and with water, everything changes.”

Police come forward to assist senior citizens

Batala Senior Superintendent of Police Rachpal Singh has initiated a drive wherein elderly people whose children live abroad are being identified. “Cops will regularly be in touch with such people. They will also provide medicines and other items of daily need. I have instructed all the SHOs to visit such residents. Another order that I have given is that if any elderly person gives an application in any police station of Batala police district it should not only be treated on an urgent basis, but I too should be immediately informed,” said the SSP. “The aged should not go in for face-lifting. Rather they should teach the world how to admire wrinkles which anyway are etchings of experience and character. The manner in which the elderly are treated these days, in some cases warehoused and medicated, rather than nurtured and listened to, is really distressing. That is why this drive is being undertaken,” said Gurdaspur SSP Rajinder Singh Sohal, who says a similar drive is being launched in Gurdaspur police district.

Voices grow to Make Batala revenue district

Voices to convert Batala into a full-fledged district from a sub-divisional town are getting shriller with every passing day. Earlier, this demand was taken up by senior citizens and politicians, but now more and more youths are getting involved. One such young man is Jagjot Singh Sandhu. He has already earned fame in his home town for ferreting out much-needed information from the government departments using the RTI route. He recently met SDM Balwinder Singh and submitted a memorandum seeking district status for Batala. He said he would be going to Chandigarh soon to take up this demand, which he calls as “100 per cent genuine”. On many occasions in the past when this issue surfaced, Gurdaspur-based advocates managed to scuttle it because it does not suit them. Now, cases from Batala are heard in courts of Gurdaspur. Once Batala becomes a district, it will have a separate judicial complex and Gurdaspur lawyers will be rendered redundant. Jagjot said he is aware of this development and hence is consulting the lawyers’ fraternity before he goes to Chandigarh. It is pertinent to mention here that Batala is already a separate police district. “We need a separate revenue district too. Gurdaspur has just 29 MC wards while Batala has 50. My city has a full-fledged Municipal Corporation, while Gurdaspur has a committee. My town has more than a thousand industrial units, while those in Gurdaspur can be counted on your fingers. More trains touch Batala as compared to Gurdaspur. Punjab Roadways has a bus depot here, Gurdaspur does not have one. My town is ranked among the 10 largest cities of Punjab, while Gurdaspur lags far, far behind. Is not my demand justified?” he asks. A point well made. Two years ago, Jagjot had made waves when he scribbled some interesting graffiti on a public toilet constructed by the municipal committee, but was lying in a state of neglect because the committee mandarins had failed to find a politician to inaugurate it. The graffiti read “I am a bathroom and I am waiting for some minister for my inauguration.” Jagjot said in the last two years he has written numerous letters to the Deputy Commissioner, the SDM and MC officials, but yet the bathroom has not been operationalised. Did somebody say the Punjab Government has enacted a law against red-tapism? If yes, the first thing it should do is to apply the new legislation to check its efficacy.