Historic civic body stuck amid dynastic politics
GS Paul
Tribune News Service
Ramdass, December 26
This sub-tehsil of Amritsar district, which has historic significance due to Tap Asthan Gurdwara Baba Budha Sahib, has been dominated by dynastic politics at the MC level for decades. But, its residents don’t have access to some of the basic amenities.
Annual funds
The MC has an annual budget of Rs 68 lakh. The committed liabilities amount to Rs 44.51 lakh. These include Rs 18 lakh for employees’ salaries, Rs 7.90 lakh for retirement benefits, Rs 6 lakh per month for power bills and Rs 8 lakh per month for operating tube wells, the only source of water supply to households. An amount of Rs 23.51 lakh is for non-committed expenses such as repair and construction of roads, maintenance of streetlights.
Income source
The income in 2013-2014 was Rs 70 lakh whereas the expenditure was Rs 78 lakh. Officials said the saving grace was that an amount of Rs 8.43 lakh was carried forward in the financial year. From VAT, it earned Rs 34 lakh; additional excise duty, Rs 10 lakh and house tax, Rs 7 lakh. Besides, it got Rs 3.30 lakh from building fee, licence fee, advertisement tax etc. A grant of Rs 29.13 lakh was released by the government for various development works, officials said.
Infrastructure
Drug addiction among youth is severe here, but no thought was ever given about establishing a de-addiction centre in this small border belt town.
For a population of 6,414, there is no fire safety service.
There is no underground sewer system in the town housing 996 units. Water supply, run by the Nagar Panchayat, has now been handed over to the Punjab Water Supply and Sewerage Board.
The only source of potable drinking water is tube well. Even as officials claim that water reaches almost every household, but a majority of them use submersible pumps to meet their water necessity. Surjit Singh, MC in charge, claimed fund crunch was the reason behind sluggish development here.
Sanitation in the city is a concern as the related works have been outsourced. The contractor, who took the task of removing garbage and cleaning drains in streets, allegedly does not give the stipulated DC rates to sanitation workers due to which they do not come regularly.
There is no public transport facility. Only private buses ferry passengers. A bus stand, worth Rs 1.4 crore, was inaugurated on January 2, but it has not been made operational to date. Officials in the MC said this bus stand could have earned them a daily income of about Rs 2,000 as fee for stationing the buses. Education and health
There are five government schools (one senior secondary and four primary level). There is acute shortage of teachers. The District Education Officer (Secondary), Satinderbir Singh, said at least 50 per cent posts were lying vacant in schools for a long time and those who are deputed in such border belts get themselves transferred after three years.
“Being the border belt, no teacher from main cities is willing to serve there and there are very less number of teachers who belong to the border belt area,” he said.
Moreover, in the absence of any government or private college, students have no choice but to go out of the town for higher studies.
The state of affairs in the health sector too is dismal. There are only six doctors to run the health affairs under the supervision of Senior Medical Officer, Ramdass, Dr Ashwani Kumar Sondhi.
Dr Sodhi viewed that until a Community Health Centre (CHC) under the Punjab Health System Corporation is developed, there would be no ray of hope in this sector here.
“The health centres here are being run under the Director, Health Services. Consequently, whatever user charges we generate have to be deposited with the state exchequer. As a policy matter, not a single penny comes back which can be used to improve the medical infrastructure here. The same policy is favourable if a CHC is established here as the whole income generated from it could be used, besides getting financial assistance for machinery and infrastructure. The problem of scarcity of specialist doctors too will be solved if a CHC is set up,” he said.
Garbage is disposed of through the earth filling practice and methylene dust is sprayed over to prevent its harmful effects.
Political dominance
It is the Randhawa family, representing the Congress, which has the prerogative of occupying the top civic post. Since the MC came into being in the pre-Partition era, Uttam Singh Randhawa was its president, followed by his son Surjit Singh Randhawa and lately his grandson Sunny Rajpreet Singh Randhawa. At present, the charge is with SDM Surinder Singh as administrator.
MC finances
Budget (annual): Rs 68.02 lakh
Expenditure:-
Establishment (salary etc): Rs 18 lakh
Committed liabilities: Rs 44.51 lakh
Streetlight expense: Rs 6 lakh/month
Tubewell expense: Rs 8 lakh/month
Non-committed liabilities: Rs 23.52 lakh
Unkept promises
- A bus stand set up at a cost of Rs1.4 crore in January is yet to be made functional
- Despite promises, residents do not have a proper sewerage facility
- Garbage is not being disposed of in a scientific manner
Health/education
- Primary Health Centre in city: 1
- Private hospitals: 2
- Infant mortality rate: 17/1,000
- Gender ratio: 872/1,000
- Govt schools: 5
- Private Schools: 4
- Colleges: Nil
Fact file
- Population: 6,414
- Total wards: 9
- Total voters: 3,748
- Male voters: 1,902
- Female voters: 1,846
