Inadequate health care ails Sadhaura segment

With 262 villages, the Sadhaura Assembly constituency of Yamunanagar district has over 95 per cent rural population.

The constituency also comprises three small towns: Sadhaura, Bilaspur and Saraswati Nagar. Bilaspur and Saraswati Nagar are governed by panchayats, while Sadhaura has a municipal committee.

The main roads of the segment, including those from Jagadhri to Sadhaura, Pabni to Dosarka, have been strengthened in the past five years but several link roads such as those connecting Mughalwali to Ledi and Bilaspur to Chhachhrauli are in a dilapidated condition. The construction work of the Sadhaura bypass (along the Nakti river) is also going on at a snail’s pace, causing inconvenience to people.

Naveen Bhasin of Sadhaura said the constituency was lagging behind in education as there was just one private college in Sadhaura town, but the situation had improved with the coming up of a government college in the Bilaspur area with the efforts of sitting BJP MLA Balwant Singh last year.”

Although the state government plans to open a new primary health centre in Ranjitpur village, people of this segment do not have adequate health services. The community health centres (CHCs) at Bilaspur, Sadhaura and Saraswati Nagar are not equipped with essential equipment. The number of doctors and paramedical staff is also not enough. The CHCs seem to have become referral centres. Therefore, patients prefer to go directly to hospitals of Jagadhri or Yamunanagar.

Ram Singh Rana of Saraswati Nagar and Chander Pal Sharma of Bilaspur admitted that the residents of the constituency were grateful to former Congress MLA Rajpal Bhukhri because Bilaspur was made a subdivision due to his efforts when he became MLA in 2009.

Sultan Singh Kathgarh, chairman, Ghar Vikas Sangrash Samiti, said the most backward area of the segment  ,Ghar Kshetra, (ghar area) figured poorly in terms of development, employment, health services and transport. 

Subhash Chand of Marwa Khurd village said the segment was totally dependent on the farming sector; therefore, the government should focus on setting up an industrial estate in the constituency.

Total voters 2,09,084
1,12,121 Men 
96,962 Women 
1 Third gender 

Sitting MLA: Balwant Singh

Likely contenders: 

BJP: Balwant Singh, Data Ram
Congress: Rajpal Bhukhri, Brijpal Chhappar
INLD: Ishwar Singh Palaka, Sushma Chaudhry
BSP-JJP: Kusam Sherwal

Legislatorspeak 
I devote most of my time to the service of people in my constituency. I have paid personal attention to education, health and infrastructure. Besides, the all-round development of every village of the constituency was undertaken. Therefore, we will contest the Assembly elections on development issue — Balwant Singh, BJP

Oppositionspeak  
When I was MLA from here, I put in my best efforts to carry out development in the constituency and provided employment to a number of youth. Besides talking of our achievements, we will tell the people about the failures of the present government in the coming Assembly elections—Rajpal Bhukhri, former Congress MLA