Gurdaspur Diary: Batala residents seek PGI/AIIMS satellite centre in town

Batala residents seek PGI/AIIMS satellite centre in town

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Last week, Gurdaspur MP Sunny Deol met the Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya in New Delhi and sought, among other things, a satellite centre of either AIIMS or PGI to be established anywhere in his parliamentary constituency. Batala residents claim they want it to be established in their city. Young social worker Jagjot Singh Sandhu has been successful in bringing together some influential social organisations on a joint platform. This team aims at impressing upon the Health Minister to send a team of experts to Batala to study the feasibility to set up the centre in the city. These organisations are Rotary Club, Lagu Udhyog Bharti and the Rotary Club mid-town. Here ex-MLA Fateh Jung Singh Bajwa will be playing a vital role. After leaving the Congress, he joined the BJP and also contested, albeit, unsuccessfully on the party ticket from Batala. Over a period of time, he has developed links with some high ranking BJP leaders in Delhi. This may help residents in a big way if they are to impress upon the union government to set up the health venture in Batala. On his part, Bajwa says he is always at the beck and call of fellow Batalvis. “I will be meeting the health minister and will impress upon him that Batala is surrounded by some important townships like Sri-Hargobindpur, Gurdaspur, Fatehgarh Churian, Qadian and Dera Baba Nanak. The residents of Amritsar, which is just 30 km away, too can benefit if the project comes to Batala. Private hospitals are indeed expensive. Actually, the private health care system is neither healthy nor it is a system and nor does it care. It is akin to a parked taxi with its meter running. Its only aim is to rake in the moolah. Getting proper health care should be considered a fundamental right. I will also try to meet Sunny Deol. Working in pairs has its own advantages,” maintained Bajwa.

Political incongruity in civic bodies impeding dev projects

The political incongruity in the Pathankot and Batala Municipal Corporations (MC) and the Gurdaspur Municipal Committee is too pronounced to be missed. In Pathankot, the city has a BJP MLA who is also an ex-officio member of the MC House, a Congress Mayor and an AAP halqa in charge following which petty politicking has been pushed to the forefront at the cost of developmental initiatives. Residents claim Pathankot is under a curse of sorts as a similar development occurred from 2017 till 2020 when the town had a BJP Mayor in Anil Vasudeva and a Congress MLA in Amit Vij. At that time, funds from the state government were not allowed to flow freely because the legislator was of the opinion that all the credit for undertaking civic works would fall in the lap of the BJP. Verbal skirmishes between the MLA and the first citizen were a common occurrence. Things are the same now. Ashwani Sharma is the sitting BJP legislator; Panna Lal Bhatia is the Congress Mayor while Vibhuti Sharma has been nominated by AAP as its halqa in charge (caretaker). Ex-Mayor Vasudeva, says it is a classic case of too many cooks spoiling the broth. “Whatever the political configurations might be, our party is ready to extend issue-based support to the Congress in the MC House. We want development projects to be put on the fast-forward mode. We will never interfere but will surely intervene if civic projects are not executed on time,” he said. Officials clandestinely admit that they cannot comprehend whose call to take. “If the MLA wants to get something done, the Mayor objects. If both somehow come on the same page, the AAP caretaker objects. All three want to have a finger in the pie that the MC is. It is the common man who is suffering,” said a senior officer. The MC came out with its annual budget last week but politicking has meant no provision has been made to construct a new MC complex. “The MC office is in a crowded area and is a five decade old structure. However, no money has been earmarked for the construction of the new building,” admitted a Congress councillor. The issue of sewerage getting mixed with drinking water in several colonies is also being swept under the carpet. The consensus among residents is that till all the three main stakeholders— MLA, Mayor and halqa in charge — came on a single platform, which in any case is a highly unlikely proposition, things will continue to drift. Likewise, in Batala, the MC is controlled by the Congress whose mayor is Sukhdeep Singh Teja while the sitting legislator Amansher Kalsi belongs to AAP. The biggest casualty is development. Things have hit a stalemate in the city. Several important civic works have been put on the backburner. Till when, nobody knows. In Gurdaspur, the Congress has won all the 29 wards the municipal committee has. The city surely has a Congress MLA but as things stand, AAP has appointed, rather nominated, its own halqa in charge in the form of Raman Bahl. Things on the development front will move only if the proposals have the concurrence of Bahl. Leave alone officials of the civic body, even the administration and police listen to only Bahl and nobody else. When will this political incongruity be solved is anybody’s guess. The jury is still out on it.

In politics nothing is permanent!

Four-time MLA and fromer Cabinet minister Aruna Choudhury was regarded as one of the most powerful women politicians of Majha. As they say, nothing is permanent in politics. When in power it was indeed a sight to see senior civil and police officers bending backwards to obey her diktats. Long queues of officers at her Dinanagar residence were a common occurrence. With time, things have also changed, power has slipped through her hands. Now, officials do not even take her calls. Last week, she was virtually forced to dispatch copies of the Government of India’s Warrant of Precedence to these very officers. The warrant defines the relationship, and the protocol to be maintained, between elected representatives of people and administration officials. That is why they say in litics nothing is permanent.

Contributed by Ravi Dhaliwal