Once an attraction, Basti Sheikh wants attention
Aakanksha N Bhardwaj
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, December 13
This area has to its credit a series of firsts. It is one of the first oldest areas of the city and is also among the ones that got the first water supply. This is Basti Sheikh Darvesh area which is known as ‘Basti Sheikh’. It got its name because the ‘darveshs’ (people who used to live here were considered as ‘guiding forces’ for others).
Government Primary School here is famously known as Chitta school as, according to residents, it was one of the first schools that were painted in white. Apart from this, at a huge park in Mohalla Kot used to be a Laal Pahadi (red mountain) which used to be a centre of attraction for the visitors, and adjacent to it was a ‘pucca’ pond, another attraction.
Now, after the passage of many years, these places are no more tangible and can be visualised only in discussions. No Laal Pahadi, only remains of the constructed pond, the school which never got upgraded and the pipes which were laid for water supply have got eroded, and in the name of the health facility, an Ayurvedic dispensary has been opened where no doctor sits, the medicines that are kept are in a bad condition and even the chairs are in a bad shape.
With 226 students, Government Primary School, which is up to Class V, has many sections. There are eight classes, but only four rooms which is why the teachers here take two classes in one room which makes the studies a messy affair.
Residents say health, education and civic amenities, including water supply, are in a poor state that should be focussed upon by leaders.
The area is under Ward No. 38 and 44. From Ward 38, Congress, SAD-BJP and AAP have fielded Onkar Rajiv, Ajay Kumar Barna and Hemraj Kauldhar, respectively, while from Ward 44, Harsimranjit Singh Banti is in the fray from the Congress, and Manjeet Singh Titu and Sukhchain Singh are contesting from SAD-BJP and AAP, respectively.
There is a Ghas Mandi Chowk here in Basti Sheikh where years ago, people from the adjacent area would come with hay and fodder to sell them. And now, the area has encroachments which lead to huge traffic jams here. Waterlogging also greets people here on the road that leads to Kala Sanghian road and it has become its identity.
It is a densely populated area with narrow lanes, which are only two feet wide.
Baljeet Singh (80), a retired government employee, sums up the problem of the area in one line, “People who were respectable and were called guiding force used to live here and now we don’t have any guide to solve our problems.”
